


Achievement Hunter X

by Drakanin



Series: Achievement Hunter X [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen, No Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-01-26 17:06:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1695872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakanin/pseuds/Drakanin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is gonna sound really weird,” Burnie said, “but I really need you to believe me, for your sake and for the others. You’re a mutant..."<br/>When an accident in the office reveals that several employees are mutants, it doesn't take long for the Achievement Hunter crew to figure out that something sinister is about... something that wants to eradicate the very existence of mutants. But will they fight it? Or will they continue to hide who they are?<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wake Up

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on a whim for a friend and they wanted more, so here I am. Key word - whim. I cannot guarantee a regular update schedule but I will do my best.

It all started when Jack flinched just after a Let’s Play had finished filming. Just as he switched off the monitor, a sharp pain shot through his head, making him wince.

“Jack?” Geoff said cautiously. “You okay, buddy?”

“Y-yeah,” Jack assured his friend and co-worker. “Just a headache. Been staring at the screen too long…”

A sharper, more intense pain decided to make itself present in Jack’s brain at this moment, causing the bearded man to cry out in pain and clutch his head. Geoff was the first to stand and reach towards his friend, the others not far behind, but something strange was happening. Jack’s eyes glowed bright white, and a pulse of mental energy rocketed out in a radius that reached the entire AH office. The pulse was a dizzying force that struck into the minds of the other five men present. Six bodies slumped unconscious to the floor.

* * *

 

“Jack. Jack, wake up.”

Jack slowly opened his eyes, flinching at the bright light in the ceiling above him. He quickly covered his eyes with a free hand, noting both his throbbing headache and Burnie hovering above him with a hand on Jack’s arm. He was apparently lying on the white couch in the AH office.

“Ugh… Burnie? What happened? My head kills…”

“This is gonna sound really weird,” Burnie said, “but I really need you to believe me, for your sake and for the others. You’re a mutant, apparently with psychic abilities. Many of us are mutants – myself included.”

“What, like X-Men?” Jack asked, dumbfounded and disbelieving. What a silly thing to claim!

Burnie laughed. “Kinda, ‘cept it’s a little more unpredictable. Especially when you hang around guys like me, who can nullify powers.”

“What do you mean, ‘unpredictable’?” Jack decided Burnie wasn’t making much sense. Mutants in the real world weren’t like X-Men – they don’t get special supernatural powers, just weird and sometimes harmful malformations. But Burnie seemed so earnest, and Jack didn’t think he would tell such an elaborate, fantastical lie…

“Well… sometimes mutations don’t ever manifest until a dramatic event triggers them. More often than not, though, some mutations nowadays are subdued by medical means.”

“But then… if what you’re saying is true,” Jack said slowly, “then why did – my _powers_ – activate now?”

Burnie gave an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, probably my fault. I think I’ve been away for too long. We’ve known about you guys since we hired you, thanks to Matt. We decided it was safer for you all if you just didn’t know. It’s a dangerous world for mutants. But the company has been growing so big, and not only is our workplace so much bigger now, but I’ve been slacking, too.”

Jack remembered something else Burnie had said. “You said many of us are mutants…”

Burnie nodded. “Almost the entire Achievement Hunter crew are mutants, including you six. You knocked them out pretty bad about an hour ago.”

Jack shot up in his seat, ignoring all lingering pain, the hand dropping from his face. “I… I did!? Christ, are they okay?”

Burnie smiled and patted him on the arm. “Most of them are awake already, and have already got ‘the talk’ from Matt. I kept you in a separate room so that I could calm your powers down and let them recover. Let’s go see them, then.”

Burnie helped Jack to his feet, keeping a hand on his friend’s arm at all times. He handed Jack his glasses and led the bearded man out of the room into the open area of the break room. The other AH members plus Matt were standing around chatting while Ray was apparently asleep on another couch. The ones who were awake all turned when Jack and Burnie entered the room.

“Jack!” Geoff cried happily. “You’re up! You feeling better, buddy?”

“A little… You’re not mad?”

Michael shrugged. “It’s not your fucking fault you knocked us all out, dude.” Jack smiled gratefully at his co-workers before glancing nervously at Ray. The others fell silent as well.

“Don’t worry about Ray,” Matt said after a short pause. “He’ll wake up soon.” It sounded less like a fact and more like a hope to Jack, but Matt had said that with such confidence that Jack was more inclined to believe it as truth.

Strangely, a familiar voice came from behind them. “Why are you all hanging out in the break room? Hiding from me?” Startled, Jack and Burnie turned to face Ray standing in the doorway. “What’s with the weird looks?” The Puerto Rican couldn’t see the couch through the sheer amount of bodies in the room, but that issue quickly rectified when, lost for words, the people shuffled to the side.

Ray’s eyes went wide. “Wait, is that me? Am I dead? What - wait…” He took a step back, prompting Burnie to step forward.

“Ray you’re not dead, look – you’re still breathing,” Burnie calmly explained. He reached out with his free hand to touch Ray on the arm, but just as it made contact, the brown man disappeared. The Ray on the couch suddenly woke up and shot into a sitting position, smashing heads with Gavin, who had been leaning over him.

“Owwww….. How did I… I was…” Ray sputtered, pointing at Burnie and the place he just was. Matt sighed and stepped forward.

“Ray, calm down. You  just astral projected. You’re a mutant.”

* * *


	2. Scan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little dialogue heavy but it's the beginning chapters man what do you expect

“You just astral projected. You’re a mutant.”

This statement, coming from the CEO of the company he works in, baffled Ray for a couple different reasons. The fact that his head now hurt thanks to its collision with Gavin’s surprisingly hard noggin only made his comprehension worse. He had no idea what astral projection was, had no idea what Matt meant by “mutant,” and had just seen himself unconscious. He still wasn’t over seeing himself from outside his own body. It was surreal. He sat on the couch in the break room next to Gavin, both of them rubbing their heads. He took his glasses off and rubbed them with the hem of his shirt before looking Matt square in the eye.

“With all due respect, boss, you’re fucking nuts.” Matt looked like he expected this answer and gave a little sigh, but let Ray continue. “I can’t be a mutant, I look and feel fine – have my whole fucking life! I’m not – I’m not _different_. And what even _is_ ‘ass-tral projecting,’ or whatever you called it!?” His voice had risen in volume as he went on. Noticing this, he finally clamped his mouth shut and waited for Matt to answer.

Ray noticed that the rest of the room’s occupants were respectfully, if not a little awkwardly, quiet. They had all been awake before him – perhaps Matt had already told them what he was being told now. But that meant… didn’t that mean that the others were being called mutants, too?

“Ray,” Matt began, “I know this is hard to believe, but I am not kidding around, and neither are the rest of us. You’ve witnessed evidence of mutations twice now – earlier, when Jack psychically knocked you all out, and just now, when you saw yourself from outside of your body.”

“I’m not a fucking _X-Man_ –”

“Let me finish answering the questions you have now before you add more.” Ray felt his face heat up and he glanced away briefly. “These mutations are not like what you normally think mutations are. Usually they make themselves apparent in your pre-teens or teenage years, as your body changes the most dramatically. I’m not entirely sure at the moment why you or the others didn’t know about your mutations before you got hired – this many late-bloomers are highly unlikely – but Burnie is the reason from then until now.” At his mention, Burnie gave a smile and a thumbs up at Ray, who returned a brief grin half-heartedly, barely pulling up one corner of his mouth.

“And astr – uh, my thing?” Ray pressed.

Matt leaned against a table before talking more. “ _Astral projection_ ,” Matt began, saying the two words slowly, “is separating your consciousness from your body. Your consciousness takes on the qualities of a ghost, being intangible, but I’m sure that with concentration you could touch objects and become solid to the touch. I can probably find out more about what you can do if… I just…” Matt held out his hand, baffling the poor Puerto Rican further. Ray was slightly comforted to see the other Achievement Hunters looking confused as well. Geoff raised an eyebrow, and Ryan had this look of concentration, his eyebrows drawn together as he stared at nothing in particular on the ground. Michael stood with his arms crossed, brown eyes flicking from face to face.

Burnie jumped in with an explanation. “Jeez, Matt, you didn’t tell them?” he said with a laugh. “The reason we _knew_ we were all mutants was because Matt’s mutation allows him to sense other mutations. Going along with this, he can identify exactly what you can do by seeing you in action or by prolonged contact.”

“I… see…” Ray said cautiously. In reality, he didn’t really see, but he was at least starting to understand. He was beginning to feel like he was in an X-Men comic book, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that either. On one hand, this sounds very, _very_ cool. On the other hand, this sounds very, _very_ implausible. The whole situation was making him feel light-headed. Yet Matt’s hand was still outstretched, an offering to confirm his new reality. Ray chewed his lower lip, sparing a glance at Gavin, who shrugged and grinned but otherwise contributed nothing.

He took Matt’s hand.

Ray didn’t know what he expected. Maybe an induced trance, or a spark running up his arm, or _something_ , but instead Matt just held his hand and closed his eyes. After about a minute, Matt opened his eyes and let go.

“I did a full scan, and along with what I said before, you should be able to float somewhat and turn invisible to most people as a projection.”

“Do me next!” Gavin demanded, bouncing forward to sit on the edge of the couch. Matt laughed a little.

“I’ve spent too much time here already. We all have. I won’t do full scans, but I can tell you guys vaguely what you have. And then everyone needs to get back to work!”

Burnie took his leave as Matt made his way around the room like a meet and greet, shaking everyone’s hand for a few moments. Ray noticed that Geoff looked uncomfortable and agitated, like he was itching to say something but wasn’t sure how or when to say it. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot, staring either at Matt or at the ground.

The powers were as follows. Gavin had echolocation and sound-based powers; Ryan had dominion over creatures (what that meant, Ray didn’t really know); Geoff had self-healing powers; Jack had psychic persuasion; and Michael had acid generation.

“We can discuss this more after work,” Matt said after finishing. “We’ve all lost about two hours now.”

The Achievement Hunters started filing out of the room, headed back towards their office, but Geoff dawdled behind. Ray noticed and lagged just outside the door, his curiosity getting the better of him. Geoff grabbed Matt’s arm lightly and said “Matt, can I talk to you in private?”

“Can it wait until after work?”

“Now, Matt.” Geoff stared into his friend’s eyes with blue eyes colder than usual. Normally so easygoing, he was being entirely serious. Matt picked up his mood and nodded curtly.

“We can talk back in my office,” he conceded. The two older men exited the break room through the door on the other side.

“Ray, what are you doing?” It was Ryan noticing the brown man’s conspicuous absence. “Quit lollygagging and come on.”

“Coming, coming…” With a glance back towards the break room door, Ray hurried back to work. Though how he was going to concentrate now, he had no idea…

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! This update was fairly quick, but i work full weekdays, so don't expect very frequent updates. <3


	3. Argue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another quick update, you're being so spoiled

“How long have you been keeping this from us.”

It was a question, but Geoff said it flatly. He stood with a wide, solid stance, his arms folded across his chest and his shoulders tense as he stared his friend down. He was not smiling, his jaw clenched rigid when he wasn’t speaking. His eyebrows threatened to pull down into a full-fledged furrowed brow, but some restraint was present – Matt was his friend after all, and had been for a long time. Yet Geoff wanted answers, and friend or not, he wasn’t leaving until he got them.

Luckily, Matt was willing to give him this information. “Ever since we met.”

Geoff threw his hands down and balled them into tight fists. “Why didn’t you _tell_ me? Why didn’t you tell _any_ of us, Matt? I feel like I’ve been lied to for a very long time.”

Matt took a step towards Geoff and raised his hands in a sort of confused and exasperated gesture. “I don’t really know, okay? When we first met, I wasn’t sure if you knew or not – I didn’t know what to do about the whole situation. I revealed myself to Burnie and Joel and…”

“ _Joel?_ Joel’s in on this too?!”

“Geoff, please understand. Joel didn’t know at the time and I told him about his mutation—”

Geoff interrupted him by jabbing a finger in his direction and speaking with the threat of becoming loud.  “So Joel is one too. How many of us are there, Matt? How many have you lied about?”

“Geoff—”

“ _How many, Matt?_ ”

Matt exhaled forcefully through his nose. He paused to count in his head. “Thirteen. That’s how many people know now.”

“There could be more, you mean.”

Matt shrugged helplessly. “I’m only human, Geoff, I’m doing the best I can.”

Geoff sighed reluctantly and made an attempt to relax his posture. He still stood stiffly, though. “Who are they.”

Matt ticked the names off on his fingers. “You six, myself, Burnie, Joel, Lindsay, Caleb, Kerry, and Miles. Lindsay already knew what she was when she was hired, and Caleb, Kerry, and Miles suffered a similar accident to you six a few months ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” The anger seemed to have mostly seeped out of Geoff by now, leaving him looking tired and way too old. His hands relaxed at his sides as he stared rather vulnerably at his friend. Matt grimaced, looking guilty.

“Look, when I first met you, I didn’t know what to do about the situation. I tried telling Joel and – well, with the way he reacted, I didn’t want to try telling you. I know you’re a chill dude, but…”

“But…” Geoff egged on.

Matt let a long breath out and travelled around his desk to sit down. He leaned forward on his elbows and fixed an intense stare on Geoff. “Being a mutant is dangerous, Geoff. When I was young and didn’t really understand anything, I – I exposed someone and watched him get taken away. They wanted to take me, too, but I was small and fast and escaped. I have no idea what happened to him to this day.”

Geoff put his hands on Matt’s desk and leaned on it. All anger was gone. “Who are ‘they’, Matt?”

He shrugged. “I don’t entirely know, Geoff. They could be scientists, doctors, government agents, police officers… It’s something the general populace doesn’t know about, something that ‘They’ want to be eradicated quietly.”

Geoff reached over the desk and squeezed Matt’s shoulder. “I see. I’m sorry I got angry with you. You were trying to protect us.”

The CEO shook his head. “You had every right to be angry with me.” Sensing this conversation was over, he added, “Now get back to work.”

* * *

 

Geoff wanted to get back to work. He really did. He was tired and confused, and his whole world had just changed – and not necessarily in a good way. Getting back to work would help distract him from this ridiculousness. But when he reached the Achievement Hunter office, he found his co-workers had quite the short attention span.

They had focused long enough to burn their names into their recorded Let’s Play and start converting the video. Now they were chatting in low voices or, in the case of Gavin, being a nuisance to Ryan.

“How do you suppose echolocation works, Ryan?” Gavin called from across the room, not even bothering to walk over to the older gent. As he waited for an answer, he started making low noises in the back of his throat, clearly trying to activate whatever mutation he had. Ryan, in the meantime, pinched the bridge of his nose and hunched over his desk.

“Just _Google_ it,” he said, exasperated. “Do you think you know how _everything_ in the whole fucking _world_ works?”

“Well, _you’re_ the smart one,” Gavin said, leaning back in his chair.

Jack watched this scene impassively, keeping his gaze mainly focused on his computer screen. He seemed nervous, rubbing his beard or adjusting his glasses or fiddling with paper on his desk or adjusting his glasses again. Michael and Ray, on the other hand, were hunched over and leaning into each other, their discussion happening in murmurs. Ray was incessantly tapping his heel against the ground, and when he wasn’t talking he tended to chew the end of his purple hoodie’s drawstring. In contrast, Michael was completely still. It was just past eleven.

“I see we’re all being very productive,” Geoff said dryly, a bit louder than normal. Ryan and Gavin had seen him enter, but the other three jumped. He grinned wryly. That was exactly the reaction he wanted to elicit.

“Sorry, Geoff,” Michael said immediately, pushing his chair away from Ray’s and turning towards his computer. Geoff went to his own desk and saw that his name was already burned into the game footage – he guessed either Jack or Ryan did that.

“What were you and Ray discussing?” Startled at the mention of their names, the two lads glanced wide-eyed at Geoff. Ray looked half-inclined to flat out lie, but they both quickly regained composure.

Michael answered, “We were just kinda wondering why none of us ever knew about – about it before now.”

Geoff shrugged. “Who knows? There’s no real way of telling, right?” The look on their faces said otherwise. “Well…?”

“That’s what we’re discussing, though,” Michael said. “For some of us, I can easily imagine it just never came up. I can imagine that ‘dominion over creatures’ or whatever the fuck Matt called it could be something you just never noticed as strange. Same for healing or fucking echolocation.”

Geoff caught on to the leading exclusion. “But…?”

Michael gestured to himself and Ray. “We’ve got… abilities that would be pretty fucking conspicuous and really easy to do accidentally. Pretty fucking sure Jack would notice if people always did what he said, too – or if he knocked anyone out cold with his _mind_.”

“So something happened,” Ryan mused, his brow knitted together in deep thought. “Something was done to change the prevalence of these abilities.”

Ray nodded. “That’s what we were thinking.”

This tickled something in Geoff’s mind. He felt like the answer was right in front of him. He recalled the conversation he just had with Matt. “Hmm… I don’t know how well you guys would remember, but do you remember going to a – a scientist, or… or a doctor in your youth?”

“Of course we went to a fucking _doctor_ , Geoff—” Michael started, but Ray cut him off.

“No, wait, I _do_ kind of remember something weird.” Everyone’s eyes turned towards him. He cupped his chin in his hand thoughtfully as he recalled his memories. “When I was young, I sleepwalked real bad. I don’t remember much about the whole thing, but I remember my mom being freaked out about it for some reason. The first doctor didn’t think anything was wrong, said I’d grow out of it or some shit like that, but Mom was pretty fucking frantic. The second doctor took a blood test, and a few weeks later, I got a shot. I think she said it was a vaccine.”

“I remember something like that as well,” Jack said. “I had really bad headaches when I was younger, and Mom took me to a pediatrician. I think she was hoping for more kid-friendly painkillers, rather than having to chop up migraine pills, I don’t really know for sure her reasoning. But instead I was given a sort of vaccine – he said it might help. I didn’t get blood drawn, though.”

Everyone turned expectedly towards Michael, who grew irritated. He threw up his hands. “Hey, _I_ don’t fucking know. The only vaccines I got were for school or fucking _whooping cough_ or something. You know, when you’re fucking _supposed_ to.”

“Maybe you really _were_ a late bloomer,” Ryan suggested. Nobody had an answer, of course.

Geoff coughed once and clapped his hands. “Ahem, I do believe we have time to film another Let’s Play before lunch. As new and strange and important as this all is, we are still a company, folks.” The other five grumbled in reluctant agreement. As Geoff went to pull down a game off the shelf, he spared a glance at the other door in the Achievement Hunter office, where Team Thugs usually worked. He would have to talk to _them_ later…

* * *


	4. Plan

They finished filming another Let’s Play and did the necessary post-recording requirements and prepared to head to lunch. A new cute little diner had opened up nearby and several of them wanted to try it out, but Michael and Lindsay were staying behind to eat together.

Just before they left the room, Geoff stopped Michael with a hand on his arm. In a low voice, Geoff muttered, “You might want to talk to Lindsay about all this.”

Michael appeared startled and a little confused. The older man did not clarify, but merely nodded briefly and followed his lunch dates out. He didn’t need clarification, though. Michael had more than an inkling on what Geoff was implying. He threaded his hand through Lindsay’s fingers and suggested that they eat outside. Lindsay sensed that he was doing this for privacy and nodded.

They found a little spot away from the other employees who also wanted to eat outside and settled down. Before Lindsay had even taken a bite, Michael sprung the question.

“How long have you been hiding your mutation from me?”

Lindsay nearly dropped her food. If she had actually taken a bite, she likely would have spat it out or choked. “Uh? What do you mean?” Michael pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow, silently saying _“Really?”_ She laughed nervously and put her food down. “I see… I didn’t _want_ to hide it from you, but Matt had told me to. To be fair, he told me to hide it from everyone. It made sense, so I did.”

“Well you don’t have to hide it anymore,” he said confidently, keeping his voice low. “You don’t have to hide it from any of us six.”

Understanding dawned on Lindsay’s face as the gears turned in her mind. “I… I was wondering why you guys were so quiet for part of the morning. The curtain was drawn, I didn’t see anything!” She was beaming now, and Michael couldn’t help but grin back. Over the course of their lunch break they discussed their new situation quietly and excitedly. Lindsay explained what she could do, how she figured out from a young age that she saw better than her peers in low light situations and noticed much smaller movements than them. When she got hired, Matt told her that there was another part of her mutation she never figured out for herself – being able to meld into shadows to become invisible. Michael as well mentioned his supposed acid powers, and his and Ray’s discussion on why no one figured it out until now. She mentioned how Miles and the rest of Team Thugs sans Kdin had had an accident too, similar to the Achievement Hunters.

“This is going to be great!” Lindsay said enthusiastically. “I hated lying to you about this!”

They shared a kiss and packed up their lunches. It was time to get back to work, unfortunately, but there was a positive feeling in the air.

 

* * *

Achingly slowly, the work day progressed. Nearly every Achievement Hunter was anxious for the day to end. One by one, they finished their work, and one by one, they lounged around the office, waiting. It felt like forever by the time Matt entered the AH office, tailed by Burnie, Miles, and Kerry. Lindsay and Caleb joined them as Kdin went home.

“Right,” Matt started, clapping his hands together once. “I had promised that we could discuss this more after work, so here we are.”

“Wait, are – are you guys mutants, too?” Gavin asked, his question directed towards the four extra people.

“Yeah!” Lindsay answered enthusiastically with a large grin. “ _These_ three nerds had an accident a few months ago, too, but I already knew about myself.”

Matt coughed once to draw attention back to himself before the conversation got out of hand. “Now, what you six don’t know about is that sometimes during off hours, we meet and try and practice with our abilities. Initially, this was to keep Miles from lighting up like a spotlight randomly,” he said, jabbing his thumb in Miles’s direction, who smiled sheepishly. “But the others were interested as well. So I’m extending the invitation to you guys.”

“That sounds fucking sweet,” Michael said with a grin.

“Do we get a training montage, too?” Ray asked jokingly.

“Very funny,” Jack said dryly. “But this sounds like a great idea. Definitely would not want another accident,” he added, rubbing his head awkwardly.

Matt nodded in understanding. “We usually meet fairly regularly on Saturday mornings, but occasionally we meet in evenings as well. We weren’t planning on meeting tonight but I think having one would be… prudent.”

“Most of you are still feeling the effects of my ability,” Burnie said. “I’ve been suppressing your mutations for so long that it will take some time to reappear. You’re still free to stay.”

Geoff made a noise to draw attention to himself and stood up. “I’ve got to get home, but there’s something else that I want to discuss – with _all_ of you – before we split up.” Most of them gave him a strange, confused look, but Ray, Michael, and Ryan seemed to catch on. “There is a reason why many of us were unaware of – of a _part_ of ourselves until an accident revealed it.” He kept his gaze mostly on Matt as he spoke, who was _just_ figuring out where Geoff was going with this. “There seems to be a group of people who want to destroy this, ‘cure’ it, even.”

Everyone else shared glances with each other as Matt replied, “What do you intend to do about it? Any trails would be long cold, and there’s no way to tell otherwise.”

“No _easy_ way,” Geoff corrected.

“Wait, I’m confused,” Lindsay said. “What’s going on?”

“I guess Matt hasn’t told you _why_ it’s so dangerous to be a mutant, then,” Geoff said, slightly accusatory. Matt, in the meantime, started to look rather uneasy. “It seems to be that there are scientists, doctors, and more who have been quietly ‘treating’ us for who knows how long. For whatever reason, they had decided it was better to just try and eradicate it – eradicate _us_ – instead of trying some different approach.”

“You’ve been thinking about this all day, haven’t you,” Matt muttered.

“Forgive me, but,” Miles spoke up, “is that really such a bad thing? Sometimes people can be really dangerous with their abilities, and…”

“Except we didn’t _need_ this, Miles,” Geoff shot back. “Many of us have spent our whole lives in the dark. Who knows how many kids are still in dark. Even worse, who knows how many kids just don’t understand what’s happening. And they didn’t even try to do anything other than treat it. My point is that there is a better way to deal with this whole situation. And it is _not_ a so-called cure, and a secret war.”

“But what do you propose instead?” Burnie asked.

Geoff inhaled deeply, straightening his back a little. “We need to stop Them. We need to educate people on this, and stop this whole vaccine thing.”

Some people still looked nervous about Geoff’s tirade, including Matt, Jack, and Miles. The only ones who seemed perfectly okay with his proposal were Ray, Lindsay, and Gavin.

“I see where you’re coming from,” Ryan said cautiously, “but what _exactly_ do you propose we do about it? As even you admitted, there is no real easy way to actually find ‘Them,’ and if we even do find Them, what would we do?”

“Nothing, at the moment,” Geoff admitted. “Right now it’s more important to learn about our abilities and what we can really do with them. That’s what we should focus on right now, and later we can figure out how to approach this _other_ problem.”

Everyone seemed a lot more comfortable with this proposal. It was something they could all agree on. Only Matt still appeared more hesitant. He had spent far too long keeping secrets and making others keep secrets – he wasn’t prepared for this sort of thing. At least they could all agree to practice first. Most of the Achievement Hunters went home, but Jack and Ray stayed, along with Kerry, Miles, and Burnie. Gavin looked like he wanted to stay but decided against it for now. Matt led them to the room they used for training. Maybe nothing will ever come of it. Maybe Geoff’s _other_ plan will never be acted upon…

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've rewritten this chapter entirely like three times. So, sorry if it seems... sub-par. Action will be picking up next chapter.


	5. Project

Matt led his little entourage to the wide open space of the podcast set. With some assistance, a formidably-sized floor space was cleared, large enough for two people to spar if they so desired. Most of those who had stayed were not actually there to practice, but to observe Ray’s and Jack’s first session. Matt led Ray to the podcast couch while Burnie sat down with Jack in the middle of the cleared floor. Since Matt had done a full scan of Ray’s ability, he felt it sensible to try and get the Puerto Rican off on the right foot. He instructed Ray to lie on the couch in a comfortable position and crouched beside it. Meanwhile, Burnie and Jack chatted in low voices.

“When you project, your body is unconscious – because the majority of your consciousness is gone. Through meditating you should be able to project fairly regularly. You should also be able to ‘start’ your projection a certain distance away.”

Ray shifted on the couch, folding his hands over his stomach. “Sounds pretty good. How do I project to a different place on purpose?”

 “You need to concentrate on that place. It’ll be like you’re falling asleep and ‘dreaming’ yourself there,” Matt instructed. “It’ll probably be easier to choose a place close by that you’re familiar with, like the Achievement Hunter office. When you manage it, return here.”

Ray nodded and settled further into the couch, closing his eyes. Matt stood and stepped away to observe the rest of the room. The podcast room was rather chilly, a cold that settled under Ray’s skin just enough to make it harder to relax. Now that Matt wasn’t talking to him, he could hear Burnie’s and Jack’s conversation clearly. Not to mention that Kerry and Miles were hovering around him, standing behind the couch. Combined with the day’s excitement, Ray experienced one of those rare moments when he had difficulty falling asleep.

He focused on breathing slowly and deeply, picturing the AH office clearly in his mind. Meanwhile, Burnie and Jack discussed their own plan. Burnie wanted Jack to try and emit a psychic blast again, with the hopes of learning to _not_ do it on purpose after learning _to_ do it on purpose. Jack, of course, was rather nervous about this, a psychic blast being the event that started this whole mess. Not to mention he still felt rather guilty about knocking his friends out. Burnie assured him that since he was here, Jack wouldn’t have to worry about that – when it started, he would step in and nullify the power.

When Miles and Kerry started muttering to each other amiably, Ray couldn’t take it anymore. His eyes flew open. “Look it’s _very_ difficult to concentrate on this when you keep distracting me.”

Matt looked over his shoulder with an exasperated look. “You need to be able to do this with distractions around, you know.”

“Yeah, but this is the first time I’m trying to do this on purpose. A little quiet would be nice.”

“Then move to another room.”

“But…”

Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. “Oh suck it up and just **project** already.”

Ray shuddered suddenly. He arched his back as his eyes rolled up, his face contorting apparently in pain. He moaned, “Ohhhh, _Jack—!_ ” before collapsing into a deep rest. Jack’s hands flew up to cover his mouth, his eyes widening in horror as everyone else whipped around to stare at him.

* * *

 

He wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, only that it had _hurt_ . Of course, his consciousness had just been forcibly ripped from his body. That sounds like something that _would_ hurt. It had felt like someone had splashed hot water on his brain. He had even seen white for a couple seconds. He was going to have to have a little _chat_ with Jack later.

On the plus side, he _was_ in the Achievement Hunter office. That part of it had worked according to plan. He went to the closed door and reached for the handle only for his hand to go straight through it. Startled, he took a step back and examined his hands and arms. He _looked_ solid enough. He couldn’t see through himself, that’s for sure. He tried the handle again. His hand went through it again. He sighed and stepped through the door entirely.

He heard thumping footsteps and spotted Jack jogging lightly towards him. Relief washed across the bearded man’s face when he saw Ray. “Oh thank Christ you’re okay! I’m really sorry about that.”

Ray shrugged. He _was_ going to get mad at Jack, but it wasn’t really the older man’s fault. He told him so. “None of us really know what the fuck we’re doing,” he said. Jack smiled, his face relaxing. “The only problem is I can’t seem to touch things.”

Jack’s brow furrowed in thought. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Look.” Ray reached for the door handle behind him and showed Jack how his hand just passed through it. Jack crossed his arms, thinking, as a light smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “What?”

“Ghost Ray is back,” he joked. Ray rolled his eyes in feigned annoyance and laughed along with Jack. “But in all seriousness, even ghosts can touch things. Theoretically. If ghosts existed.”

“Get to the point, Jack.”

“Well, in movies, ghosts were able to move things, usually if they got really angry, or if they just concentrated really hard.”

Ray hummed to himself in thought, looking from his hand to the door handle. He reached out for it, concentrating on the feeling of touching the handle, imagining his hand pressing against the cool metal. When he simply phased through it _again_ , he started getting actually frustrated. He threw his hands down and glared hard at Jack, who shrugged.

“Try riling yourself up?” he suggested.

Shouldn’t be too hard, seeing as he was already frustrated. He focused on his simmering anger, trying to turn it up to a boil. He resurfaced the feelings he felt just a few minutes ago – feelings of not being able to concentrate, of being mad with Jack for forcing him to project. With ire coursing through him, he felt confident. He slammed his hand down on the handle with more force than was probably necessary and yanked the door open. He grinned victoriously at Jack before losing his balance as he lost focus and phased through the door again. Jack laughed unrestrainedly at him as he fell on his ass.

“Let’s get back to the others,” he muttered, his face turning red as he stood. Jack _did_ appear to feel better about himself, though.

When they got back to the podcast room, Matt was sitting in one of the armchairs. He stood when he saw them walk in. “Good, you’re back,” he said. He stepped over to Ray’s corporeal body on the couch and tipped it onto the floor. Ray disappeared from Jack’s side and woke up on the floor with an aching shoulder.

“Hey! What the _fuck_?”

“Do it again.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ended it a little sooner than I intended, but I'm trying to keep my chapters roughly the same length :/  
> Thank you for reading <3 If you like it so far, please let me know, with kudos or comments or otherwise. Your support drives me forward.


	6. Command

“Project?”

“With feeling!”

“Project!”

“Command the troops!”

“…Project.”

“Jack, come on! You just did it.”

Jack was feeling quite miserable and embarrassed right now. They had been at this for nearly ten whole minutes. His face felt like a space heater. He sat cross-legged across from Ray with Matt sitting between them and a pace or two away. Ray had agreed to be a guinea pig one more time, with the mutual hope that they both would gain a better understanding of how their abilities worked. Jack was totally against this initially, not wanting to hurt his friend again, but Ray assured him it was a lot like a paper cut – it doesn’t hurt as bad as it seems, and not for long either. Besides, now that he was expecting it, he’d be able to examine the process a bit better. Now Jack was staring hard at the ground, pointedly ignoring Ray’s apologetic looks, and Matt was getting exasperated.

Jack made to stand up. “Fuck this, this is going nowhere.”

Matt reached forward and grabbed Jack’s arm, keeping him on the ground. “Jack, just try a little longer. Please.” Jack sighed and lowered himself back to the ground.

“What were you thinking, when you did it the first time?” Ray asked, trying to be helpful.

Jack shrugged helplessly, searching the ground for something interesting to look at. “I don’t know, I was just kinda annoyed with you for complaining and shit.”

“So you wanted me to shut up.” Jack’s face grew even warmer. He was sure he was beet red. Ray didn’t seem to be offended though. He joked, “I could be annoying again.”

Jack laughed, making the lad grin triumphantly. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary.” He exhaled loudly through his nose and pulled his gaze up off the floor, finally meeting Ray’s eyes. He had to _want_ Ray to listen to him, to do as he said. He held the brown man’s gaze for a few moments steadily, and Ray stared back, waiting. Finally, he opened his mouth and ordered, “ **Project.** ”

Obviously something was different about this utterance. Ray shuddered again like he had experienced a sudden chill and shut his eyes. He then slumped forward, limp as a ragdoll. Jack quickly threw out his hands and caught the boy before he smashed his face into the ground. He readjusted Ray so that he was lying on his back before looking at Matt, who was beaming and giving him a thumbs up.

Both Jack and Matt rose from their seats on the ground, prompting Burnie, who up until this point had been chatting with Miles and Kerry, to stride over.

“Kerry and Miles are ready to leave,” he said, “but before we all call it quits, I want to try and get you to do one of those knock out blasts again.” Jack nodded in agreement, knowing Burnie would activate his own ability if Jack’s psychic power got out of hand. The three older gentlemen headed for the podcast set, Matt taking an armchair and the other two sitting on the couch.

“Now, from my initial scan,” said the CEO, “the psychic blast appeared to be from a buildup of mental energy. You should be able to do this on purpose, with enough concentration.”

“Sounds easy,” Jack said sarcastically. Matt threw up his hands defensively. Jack merely sighed and closed his eyes, thinking back to earlier in the day. When his headache had started, it _had_ felt like pressure was building up behind his eyes and forehead. He didn’t notice at the time, focusing instead on the twinges of pain, but now he tried to deliberately build pressure in his mind. He pushed forward with his mind against an imagined brick wall. Like a breaking dam, he forced more and more mental energy against this wall, picturing it starting to bend outwards. It seemed to come so naturally. He wasn’t entirely sure why this was. He pushed, harder and harder, willing the brick wall to crack and break. He started to feel woozy and lightheaded. His head felt helium-filled. He lost track of time, of the world around him. He felt detached, like he was floating in space.

A hand on his arm jolted him from his reverie. Blinking rapidly, he realized his eyes had been open. His head started to pound, throbbing from the back – a perfectly natural headache. He rubbed his head wearily, suddenly tired. Burnie, however, was grinning. “That went even better than planned!” he said ecstatically, glancing over Jack’s shoulder to meet Matt’s eyes.

If Burnie or Matt had wanted to say anything else about the matter, they didn’t get the chance. They were quite rudely interrupted by a terrific scream from Kerry, followed by uproarious guffawing from Miles and Ray. Ray had snuck up behind Kerry and thrust a ghostly arm through his friend’s torso before whispering “ _Boo!_ ” into said friend’s ear. In revenge, Kerry stomped over to Ray’s corporeal body and kicked it in the leg, light enough to not actually hurt but hard enough to shove Ray unceremoniously back into his body. He was still laughing as he rubbed his leg. The laughter was infectious, and even Kerry was snickering.

“I think that’s enough for today,” Matt announced, his smile stretched wide across his face. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

 

 

The next day, Gavin came into work practically bouncing. He was grinning from ear to ear, cheerfully setting up his desk for the day. Michael entered the room, threw down his backpack next to his chair, and studied his friend.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” he asked.

Gavin smiled a full-toothed smile. “Check it out!” he said. He pushed his chin out and parted his lips slightly around his teeth. It took Michael a few moments to hear what his boi was talking about. The Brit was making a series of clicking and small squeaking noises with his throat. When Michael only looked rather bewildered, Gavin slouched in faux-disappointment. “Aw, come on, Micool! Echolocation! I figured it out!”

Michael clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s fucking great, buddy,” he said earnestly, beaming back at his friend.

Seconds later, Geoff entered the room, having been held up behind Gavin for some reason, probably chatting to another co-worker. He appeared tired, but Michael couldn’t be sure – sometimes the man’s heavy-lidded eyes made him look more tired than he was. He glanced over at the two lads and nodded.

“Show him your echolocation yet, Gav?” he asked. Gavin shook his head up and down eagerly. “I had my first experience of my abilities last night as well,” he added, holding up his right hand. Wrapped around the tip of his index finger was a Band-Aid, which he peeled away to reveal smooth, perfect skin. “Sliced my finger open cutting bread last night. It healed super fucking quickly, but I had to convince my wife it wasn’t as bad as it looked.” He shrugged.

“What was it like?” Michael asked him as Geoff turned on his monitor.

Geoff got a thoughtful look on his face, pursing his lips and making his curled moustache twitch. “Kind of a hot buzzing feeling. Not unpleasant, but definitely fucking weird.”

One by one, the final three Achievement Hunters filed in for the work day. Ray and Jack discussed energetically what had happened the night before, describing in detail the training session. Ryan didn’t quite have anything to share, but he _did_ have to shoo a flock of pigeons off his car. Michael was a little jealous, honestly. He hadn’t figured anything about his own abilities yet, despite spending an hour or more just staring at his hands and concentrating. He was starting to feel a little left behind. Maybe he didn’t actually have mutant powers.

Maybe Matt was wrong?

* * *


	7. Burn

A few training sessions had passed before Ryan and Michael made it to their first one. Team Crazy Mad had found in each other a form of solidarity in not really experiencing any aspect of their own abilities. Ray had been to every single one and had gotten much more comfortable with projecting on command. He still had a little trouble touching objects, but he otherwise had a lot of fun being intangible. Jack was on and off at the sessions, but was still fairly regular. This particular session was only Geoff’s second one, not having had much to do with just self-healing. Gavin, too, had only been to one or two sessions; he had always found something better to do.

Everyone was going to be there at this particular session – even Joel, who up until this point had been absent from previous sessions that the AH members had attended. He tended to stay off to the side with Matt and Burnie; his ability, like his two co-workers, had long been under control, and was not very conductive to training besides. He did announce that he wanted to see some sparring today, however, drawing upon his knowledge of stage fighting.

“Stage fighting is a bit different from actual fighting, but I still learned some actual techniques,” he was saying. “The basics, you know? To help make the stage fights more authentic. We should get like, a kung fu master in here someday.”

Matt chuckled but said, “Do we really need to fight, though? What’s the point?”

Joel had a ready explanation. It was clear he had put some thought into this. “Well, some of us have more active abilities with techniques that you might only discover in a combat scenario. Besides, it could be fun.”

The reasons Joel gave were sensible enough, but Matt felt there was a little more to it. Had Geoff talked to him, perhaps?

Almost everyone had arrived by now. Geoff had blindfolded Gavin on the podcast stage, and Michael and Ray were moving objects to and fro in front of him. They were testing the Brit’s echolocation, having him guess the size, shape, and placement of the object, sometimes identifying the specific object itself. When Gavin correctly identified a banana, it was thrown at his head. He ducked, the banana miraculously sailing over his head, eliciting giggles from the lads and Geoff. Jack sat near the edge of the stage, but observed the antics with a smile.

“Ryan’s here!” Caleb called. He had been sitting with his hand on a deactivated iPad screen in the back corner of the podcast stage. He had had his eyes closed, his hand pressed flat against the screen, but now his eyes were open. Sure enough, a minute later, Ryan slouched into the room. He looked remotely disturbed, and it soon was revealed why.

“Pretty sure a dog just talked to me,” he said upon greeting Jack and Geoff. Geoff, still amused about the banana, resumed guffawing. Only Michael seemed to have some adverse reaction to Ryan’s statements, his face falling ever so slightly. “I’m serious! Some chick was walking her dog and it ran up to me and said, ‘hello, friend, pet me.’”

Around Geoff’s laughter, Jack asked, “Did you bark back?”

Ryan scrunched up his face. “Thank God, I didn’t.  It doesn’t seem to work like that. It’s more psychic. Like, I read their intent?”

Gavin pulled the blindfold off his eyes to stare at Ryan. “What do you bloody mean by that?”

Ryan scratched the back of his neck, trying to find adequate words. “Animals don’t know English, so they don’t ‘talk’ to me,” he said, making air quotes. “But animals still can communicate. I guess it’s just – my brain translates their communication into English for me? Besides,” he added, directed at Jack, “dogs don’t just _talk_ by barking. Barking is just like a shout or a warning.”

“That’s interesting,” said Burnie, approaching the newly arrived Gent. “I bet it’s a two-way street, too.”

Ryan nodded thoughtfully, hand on his chin. “Probably. I told the dog I had to go to work, and it got really sad, like it understood me perfectly.”

“Right, well, now that all the Achievement Hunters are here,” Matt said, a few steps behind Burnie, “we can get started. Miles and Kerry aren’t here yet, but we can start without them.” Everyone present stood and gathered in front of Matt, Burnie, and Joel. The Roosterteeth CEO nodded at Joel, prompting the dark-haired man to speak.

“Alright, chumps, today I want to have some active practice. Maybe even some sparring if we feel like it. I want to see your abilities in action.”

“Sounds fucking sweet,” Michael said, cracking his knuckles. Matt coughed once awkwardly and gestured to him Ryan, and Caleb.

“You three,” he said, “won’t be doing that. Not yet anyway.” Caleb looked like he knew why, drumming his fingers on the iPad he was carrying. But Michael and Ryan looked confused. “You,” Matt continued, pointing at Ryan, “need to meditate on your abilities. You should be able to sense nearby creatures. And you, Michael – you need to sit down with me to try and practice.”

Michael looked visibly disappointed, though he tried to hide it. His grin slipped from his face, and the smile that replaced it appeared forced. Ryan looked placid, still a little weirded out by the dog earlier.

The group split up. Joel and Burnie led most of them to clear a wide open space with the intent of using their abilities in action. Matt took Ryan, Michael, and Caleb onto the podcast set. Caleb resumed his old position in the corner, but the other three took seats on the couch and armchair. Matt told Ryan to “meditate, let your mind wander and expand” before sitting down with Michael. “Burnie’s effects on you should have worn off by now,” said Matt, extending both his hands, palms up. “Maybe a scan will help you?”

“I don’t know what the fuck is wrong either,” Michael said, putting his hands on top of Matt’s. “It’s not like I haven’t been trying.”

Matt closed his eyes and grew silent. Several seconds later, he winced and yanked his hands away from Michael’s. He opened his eyes and wiped his palms on his pants. “Alright, well your sweat seems slightly acidic,” he said with a pained smile and a short titter. Michael withdrew slightly, his hands closing into loose fists as he pulled them close to his torso. “Oh, don’t worry about it. It was kind of like vinegar or something. Anyway, it wasn’t quite a complete scan, but it seems to me that the glands in your body can be switched to produce acid. You should also be able to change the acidity of this.” Michael nodded in understanding then grinned wide, dimples appearing in his cheeks. So he _did_ have abilities. It wasn’t a huge joke or mistake.

He glanced longingly over to where the others were gathered. Matt merely laughed and told him to join them; Ryan needed help now. Michael bounced up from the couch and hurried over to join Joel and Burnie and the others, a visible spring in his step. Behind him, he heard Matt shift towards Ryan and ask, “Do you sense anything?”

To which Ryan replied, “Actually yeah. Mostly insects and arachnids. Apparently spiders are very spiritual…”

It turned out that Joel wanted to set people up in pairs, and each person would take turns taunting the other to try and goad their abilities out. Preferably, someone who had been to several meetings would pair up with someone who hadn’t. Thusly, Jack and Geoff paired up, as well as Lindsay with Gavin and Ray with Michael. The “veterans” took the first turn taunting, giving the newbies a chance to practice first.

Lindsay backed into the shadowed edge of the room, disappearing completely from sight. Gavin’s echolocation, however, made this moot. “I can still see you, Lindsay!” the lad called, laughing.

“Hey, no fair!” she replied, also chuckling. “No echolocation! Stop it!”

Gavin agreed only for the sake of the exercises, but he was still grinning. He wandered into the shadowed area where he knew Lindsay was. He looked all around him quickly, trying to spot the elusive woman. He found her when she pounced on his back. He shrieked, and she fell over, stumbling off of him and onto the ground.

“Whoa,” she said, hugging the floor. “Suddenly very, very dizzy…”

“Ah, sorry, Lindsay!” Gavin offered his hand, which she took after her ears stopped ringing and her sense of balance returned.

Meanwhile, Jack wanted to test out Geoff’s healing capabilities, which the mustachioed gent utterly refused to do. Jack’s idea of “testing” included taking out a small pocketknife and suggesting “just a little knick.”

“It might heal, but it still hurts, asshole!”

“Well how _else_ are we gonna test it?”

Jack ended up having to chase Geoff around the room rather comically, as the tattooed man scrambled over and around obstacles to avoid his friend’s knife while he frequently called out “You’re insane! Fucking Looney Toons!” Geoff leaped over the podcast couch, nearly crashing into Ryan and almost kicking Caleb in the head as he dashed behind the curtain. Jack merely stopped short of the stage and ran around one side. From behind the curtain there came a shriek and a crash, and then silence. Ryan, Matt, and Caleb leaped up from their positions to dash to the curtain and pull it aside.

Jack was standing with Geoff, holding the other gents arm out. They both had rather bewildered expressions on their faces. “Check it out,” said Jack quietly. He took the knife in his free hand and brought it down hard on Geoff’s arm. Geoff tensed up in anticipation, but the knife bounced off harmlessly.

“It seems that you can toggle indestructibility,” Matt said officially.

And while all this was going on, Ray and Michael were having no luck. Not matter what Ray did, Michael couldn’t seem to do anything with his acid powers. He knew he had them, unless Matt had been a fucking liar and a good actor. Ray tried surprising him as an astral projection, tried playing stupid schoolyard clapping games with him, tried riling Michael up (which he failed at doing anyway, Michael was too busy laughing at him). Soon Ray was out of ideas. Michael glanced several times around the room wistfully at the other mutants and their successes.

“Maybe someone else should have a shot at you?” Ray suggested. Michael merely shrugged helplessly.

Caleb jumped down off the podcast stage. “Miles and Kerry are here!” he called just as the room went completely dark. A door crashed open, and a brilliant light shone through, temporarily blinding most of the occupants.

“Worry not, your shining star has arrived!” The light sourced moved, and it occurred to Michael that it was Miles.

“Cut it out you two,” said Burnie, but he was giggling too hard to sound serious. “You assholes,” he told the two newcomers teasingly as the lights returned to normal. Miles and Kerry were grinning broadly, obviously trying to hold in their guffaws. “Go see Joel. I think it’s time these pairs were mixed up.”

The groups reconvened around Joel and Burnie. Ryan, too, hopped down off the podcast stage, wanting to join in. Ray paired up with him for some R and R Connection, and Team Nice Dynamite also made a duo. Geoff sat this one out, choosing instead to lounge on the podcast set with the other older men. Kerry and Lindsay went off to a shadowed corner together, leaving Miles with Jack.

Gavin was similarly having little luck in goading Michael, except he seemed to be so much more aggravating about it. Whereas Ray had seemed to roll with the punches, accepting the fact that it just wasn’t working for Michael and trying to think of a new way to provoke him, Gavin kept returning to his mantra of “just concentrate!” Frustration was building in Michael. He tried to restrain himself from lashing out, for the sake of his friend, but also because he _was_ trying. He could only fairly be angry with himself for not getting it. Gavin was trying to get him to breathe deeply and rhythmically, to look inwards or whatever the fuck he intended. All it succeeded in doing was making Michael want to take a nap.

“C’mon, Micool! Just concentrate!”

That was it. Michael had had enough. Just concentrating obviously wasn’t working for him, and he was actually starting to get sick of Gavin’s “encouragement.”

“Not everyone has it as easy as you,” he snapped. “Your _advice_ is fucking _useless._ ”

Gavin seemed momentarily bothered, but Michael’s anger rarely affected him for long. Michael’s anger rarely even affected the boy himself, as most of it was for show. But this time there was real ire broiling behind the brown eyes of the curly-haired lad. Gavin reached out a supportive arm, aiming to pat his boi on the shoulder with a kindly “Aw, Michael, you only need some time.” His hand never made it there; Michael grabbed it by the wrist and gripped it tightly.

“You don’t fucking understand!” Michael shouted in Gavin’s face. “Once your abilities were done being fucking nullified, every fucking thing has been so motherfucking easy for you! You don’t fucking understand how fucking hard it is!” Gavin began to squeal, first out of fear, then out of pain. “I can’t fucking just do it magically, it takes fucking effort and your fucking advice of ‘just try harder’ doesn’t _fucking help._ ”

Gavin was actively trying to pull away from Michael, his face flinching. No wonder, as a yellowish clear liquid began to seep out from underneath Michael’s fingers, starting to drip slowly and thickly down the Brit’s arm.

The others had stopped to observe the one-sided shouting match, but by now they had all sensed something was wrong. Only a few of them noticed exactly what was happening. Ray, the nearest person, approached cautiously but hurriedly, raising a hand in preparation to place it on Michael’s shoulder in hopes of calming him down.

“Michael, please, let…” he started. All he succeeded in doing was obtaining Michael’s attention.

“Stay the fuck out of this, Ray!” Michael yelled, swiping his free hand fiercely through the air in an attempt to ward off the third lad. Ray recoiled, clutching his arm to his chest and crying out. He stumbled backwards, where Ryan caught him and steadied him as he sunk to the floor.

“Michael, **stop**.” It was Jack. Michael froze in place, his face slackening as the persuasion took hold. His grip loosened and Gavin finally wriggled free, cradling his wrist and moving quickly a few paces away to crouch down and hunch over. Michael shook his head as Jack’s influence wore off.

Most of the room’s occupants were dead quiet, staring at Michael. Ray and Gavin were whimpering. Ryan was crouched down in front of Ray, murmuring quietly as he examined the younger man’s skin. Ray looked very, very small, hunkered down next to the much bigger Ryan. Michael saw with a jolt to his gut that patches of the skin on Ray’s forearm and chest were stippled red and roughly burned. His shirt had a rather large set of gaping holes in the front as well.

The only real movement in the room was Geoff dashing over to Gavin, gently pulling the Brit’s arm away from his stomach. Michael wanted to throw up at the sight of Gavin’s injury. The skin on his wrist was in an even worse state than Ray’s, a multitude of colors ranging from deep angry scarlet to nearly pure white making an intricate topography across the map of Gavin’s tanned flesh. The mottled web extended down Gavin’s arm in wide tendrils. He had done this. He had burned both of his friends. His lads.

Michael ran.

No one stopped him.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I had never drawn Miles before, so sorry.
> 
> I ended up cutting the chapter short again (and yet it still feels like a longer chapter!), but it's probably better this way. This chapter was a little hard to write until the end. Thank you for reading, though! If anything is confusing, I will answer any questions in the most non-spoilery way possible.


	8. Heal

Geoff, with the steady, trained hands of a father, gently stood Gavin back up. He put an arm around the boy’s shoulder, his hand grasping warmly on Gavin’s arm. “Come on, let’s wash this up,” he murmured soothingly. He nodded at Jack, who already had his phone out. “Call an ambulance; I want these boys treated for acid burns.” He led Gavin towards the door, his eventual goal being the break room where a large sink was close by and easily accessible. Ryan was not far behind with Ray in tow.

A hot buzz started in Geoff’s palm that was on Gavin’s arm, a sensation he was familiar with being related to his self-healing power. He stopped, confused but passive, not wanting this sensation to stop if it was doing what he thought it was doing. Obviously, Gavin felt the tingling warmth as well, as he willingly halted, and even shushed Ryan when he made an inquisitive noise. Gavin held out his injured wrist as the feeling travelled down his arm. The injured skin’s color slowly evened out into a uniform tone, the webbed and shriveled parts knitting themselves back together into smooth, perfect flesh. Soon enough, there was just a pale scar around the wrist where the worst of the injury was, and even that would disappear in time.

Gavin whipped around, thrusting his arm forward to show Ryan. The gent’s eyes widened as he took a few moments to figure out what was going on. While Ryan was still thinking, Geoff moved on to Ray, who stared silently at him with brown eyes like an injured puppy – hurt and in pain, but silently waiting for this man to something, _anything_. Geoff carefully brought Ray’s burned arm towards him and placed his own hand just above the wounds. The warm buzzing returned, and Ray watched passively with shining eyes as his skin too knit back together on both his forearm and chest.

Geoff felt exhausted, but there was one more lad to take care of. He waved Ryan off and ignored Matt and Burnie. The only thing he said before he left the room was, “Looks like we don’t need that ambulance, Jack. Try and call it off.”

* * *

 It turned out that Michael hadn’t gone far. He sat on the front steps of the Roosterteeth building with his head in his hands. He didn’t look up when Geoff opened the door, nor did he make any acknowledgement of the gent’s presence when he sat down with a grunt and a sigh. For a full minute that felt more like a full hour, neither of them said anything. When Michael finally did speak, Geoff almost missed it his voice was so small and cracked.

“I hurt them.”

Geoff reached out a hand that Michael quickly shied away from. “You won’t hurt me,” Geoff said, his hand still outstretched, palm up – an open invitation.

“I don’t – I might burn you, too,” Michael muttered, not meeting Geoff’s gaze. He stared hard at his sneakers.

“Try me.”

Michael shot Geoff a wary glance, though his eyes still didn’t quite meet the gent’s, choosing instead to focus on something over his shoulder. The lad’s gaze flicked to Geoff’s hand.

“They’re okay,” Geoff said. “Ray and Gavin. I healed them – you can’t even tell what happened.”

Michael cautiously lifted a shaking hand and left it hovering over Geoff’s for a few indecisive seconds before slowly wrapping his fingers around the tattooed hand. Acid could be heard sizzling, but Geoff did not flinch. Eventually, the noise stopped and Michael’s grip grew tighter, almost painful. His shoulders shook and his face grew beet red before he hung his head.

“I hate this,” he whispered fiercely. “I thought it would be cool, but instead I’m just a fucking danger to everyone around me. Maybe… Fuck. Maybe it _would be_ better if we were all just vaccinated and cured.”

“Michael, denying a part of yourself is not the answer. I know it sucks dicks right now, but you _will_ learn. You will make mistakes. This happens. But we can fix them, no matter how fucking bad you think they are. Because we’ll be there every step of the way.”

Ambulance sirens ripped through the air, and Michael’s head shot up. “I thought you said they were fine!”

Geoff stood, dropping Michael’s hand. “They are, but before I figured out I _could_ heal them, we had already called an ambulance. Jack was going to try and call them off, but I think they have to come anyway.” Michael surreptitiously wiped his hands on the steps and stood up next to Geoff, waiting for the ambulance to pull in.

* * *

 The ambulance wheeled carefully into Roosterteeth’s parking lot. Michael and Geoff were joined by Ryan, Ray, Gavin, Matt, and Joel. The others stayed inside, either to avoid a stressful situation that might expose themselves, or to help keep the others calm. Miles, for example, had started flickering anxiously and uncontrollably, and Kerry stayed behind to ensure that none of the strange light was noticeable outside. Ray had obtained a new shirt, though he couldn’t replace the ruined wife beater he wore underneath. Two paramedics jumped out of the back of the ambulance and approached Geoff and Matt, who were standing in front of their small entourage.

“Let me handle this,” he muttered to Matt, who stepped back. “Sorry for dragging you away, but it turns out we don’t need an ambulance anymore. Terribly sorry for the inconvenience.”

One of the paramedics, a short Latina lady, looked confused. “We were told there were two victims of acid burn, possibly in critical condition. Did you lie to us?”

Geoff was about to say “Yes,” and make up some excuse about stupid prank calls, but Gavin piped up “We’re fine now.”

Geoff wanted to throttle Gavin. He was definitely going to punch that kid in the dick once this was over. The female paramedic asked, “May I see the two victims?”

Gavin was just now realizing his gaff and was looking quite sheepish, not meeting the gaze of the paramedic. Ray tried to save for the Brit’s mistake. “Yeah, sorry, we thought it would be funny. But they, uh, had already called you,” he said, trying to play it off like the two of them had been playing a prank that had gotten out of hand. The paramedic looked like she might be convinced – that is, until she examined their arms. She looked at Ray’s arm first.

“You’re missing rather large patches of hair,” she said, tracing a smooth hairless circle of skin with a latex glove-encased finger. Ray looked guilty, his eyebrows drawn together slightly as the corners of his lips pulled back into an awkward smile.

“Shaving incident with the girlfriend, you know,” he said shakily. A terrible lie, but it was the best he could come up with on the spot. The skin was far too smooth, the patches far too rounded and irregular, to be a mere “shaving incident.” The paramedic glanced at him with dark eyes narrowed in suspicion, but let it slide for now. She took Gavin’s arm.

“You are missing hair, too,” she noted. “Did you have a ‘shaving incident with the girlfriend,’ too?” Gavin glanced nervously at Geoff, who shrugged slightly. The paramedic touched Gavin’s new scar. “When did you get this scar?”

Panicked, Gavin answered automatically, “I dunno, a few months ago, I guess?”

“Do you remember what caused it? It’s a very interesting shape.”

Gavin’s eyes were wide now, and he licked his lips before answering. “I, uh, bloody cut myself, didn’t I, Geoff?”

“Damn right you did,” Geoff said quickly – perhaps too quickly? “That was a mess, but it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.”

The paramedic glanced back at her partner, who nodded curtly in agreement to something unsaid. “Right,” she said, “I’m going to need blood samples from both of you two.”

“Blood samples?” Geoff cut in. “Fucking why?”

The paramedic glared at the gent for his rudeness. “Doctor’s orders. I’m supposed to get blood samples from any non-critical patients before I come back to the hospital. She needs it for her research, and she doesn’t get enough from just volunteers. Of course, we can’t take blood without your permission…” The paramedic trailed off, leaving the “but” hanging in the air. She let her audience finish the phrase for themselves. The message still got across, though – she was not leaving until blood samples were obtained.

“Fine, yeah, whatever,” Geoff said, waving his hand at Gavin and Ray, who took the cue and agreed as well. The paramedic led the two of them to the ambulance, sanitizing their arms and drawing blood through a needle into a detachable vial, which was put into a small cooler. The two lads then emerged from the ambulance and were brought inside by the rest of the co-workers outside. Geoff and Joel stayed outside, however, and watched the ambulance pulled away. The two men stood in silence as the van turned out of the parking lot and vanished around the corner. Keeping his eyes on the place where it vanished, Geoff sounded cool and calm when he spoke to his standing partner.

“We can’t fucking let them keep that blood.”

* * *

 When the ambulance arrived back at the hospital, the paramedic’s partner immediately headed back to the ER room. “I’ll be there in a minute,” she called to him as he hurried off. She took the cooler and went down a hallway to a pair of glass double doors that led to the research section of the hospital. The doors actually led outside, as the research took place in a completely different building. The building was even on a different electrical grid from the hospital proper.There was a small side door facing the double doors, but opening that one set off the fire alarm. There was a skywalk connecting the two buildings on the second floor, but that door was locked at night. 

The paramedic walked straight through the front doors of the research building, past the receptionist who didn’t even look up, and went down a dimly-lit staircase to the basement floor. The basement floor housed five large offices spaced evenly among a set of hallways, with a few extra doors for bathrooms and closets. The paramedic strode confidently to one of the largest offices and knocked on the door softly before opening it and poking her head in. Inside, there was a tall white refrigerator pushed against the wall and a polished wooden desk in the corner, as well as several large filing cabinets.

“Miss Lehrer? Georgia?” she asked. A doctor looked up from her computer at her desk. Her dark eyes glittered, her brown hair cut close to her head in a bob. She looked like she didn’t see the sun a lot.

“Ah, Rose, you’re back with some samples, I see.”

The paramedic entered the office and set the cooler on the doctor’s desk. “I did as you said. The situation seemed very fishy, so I took blood from the two victims.”

“Good. Put them in the fridge before you leave. I shall have to study them on Monday, I’m about to break for the weekend. Where did these come from?”

“A place called Roosterteeth.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wee-oo, OC alert. I try to keep OCs to a minimum in most of my fanfictions (they tend to be a sore spot for many readers and writers alike), but sometimes I find them necessary. I hope you'll find that my OCs are fairly good, anyway.


	9. Sneak

“Team Shadowcat, status?”

“All set. Hiding behind the corner of the building.” That was Lindsay, answering for her and Kerry.

“Noted. Team Will-o-Wisp?”

“Waiting on R- _ah!_ Ahem. All set.” Miles.

The headset crackled in Geoff’s ear. He sat in his car a block away from the hospital in the dark, with Caleb in the front seat next to him and Ray sprawled unconscious across the backseat. Joel, who had helped plan this heist, unfortunately could not make it. Each person save Ray had an earpiece with a microphone taped securely to their cheek. They had tried to give Ray a headset, but they found out very quickly that his tangibility was all or nothing. When he did manage to grab the earpiece, as soon as he tried to go through a wall, it fell to the floor. Besides that, when he grabbed one, it caused an awful amount of static.

Caleb had obtained a pocket mirror and was sitting still with his eyes closed and his hand on the silvery surface as if in a trance. He was using it to remotely observe the building and the surrounding area, using the reflective surfaces as viewpoints. Yet he still spoke.

“Other than the security cameras in the front room and on the outside doors, there’s nothing to record you.” He told the two teams exactly where the cameras were.

“I’m on it,” Kerry said through the radio. “Ray, get ready to open the door.”

The front of the research building next to the hospital was suddenly engulfed in thick shadows. Of course. Kerry’s power was that of shadow generation and manipulation – very hand for sneaky break-ins. Ray phased easily through the wall and dashed through an empty office to appear in the darkened front room. He could barely see, but Kerry was good with his shadows, leaving just enough light for Ray to do what he needed to do. He made his way to the front door and opened it from the inside.

His three break-in buddies hurried through the door – or at least, he assumed all three were in. He couldn’t see Lindsay at all. Geoff’s voice popped over the radio. Ray couldn’t quite hear it, but he knew what his boss was going to say.

“Team Shadowcat, get to the upper floor and start working your way down. Team Will-o-Wisp, start from the basement. I want those blood samples found and destroyed.”

“Be extra careful of your placement,” Caleb added. “Avoid cameras at all costs. There shouldn’t be anyone in the building, but be careful of that anyway. There’s no hiding the fact that there is a break-in, but if they identify you, then it is all over.”

“Right, let’s go,” Miles said in a hushed voice, nodding to Ray. The two of them sped down the hallway to the stairs. It was nearly two in the morning and the cameras did not record sound – silence was not a requirement. Lindsay and Kerry, in a moving shroud of shadows, moved stealthily upstairs as Miles and Ray made their way down.

Team Will-o-Wisp worked methodically through the offices in the basement. The initial search of a room did not take long – they scanned the office for coolers and refrigerators, and if there were any, they searched them. The first room was completely vacant and obviously not in use by anyone. Ray passed through the wall as Miles exited the room and opened the next door, a similarly empty office. In this one there was a fridge, but it did not hold anything at all, let alone blood. The next room was locked, but Ray poked his head through the door and informed Miles it was a janitor’s closet.

“Will-o-Wisp, status?” Lindsay asked over the radio.

“Making our way through the offices. Checked out two so far,” Miles reported. “You?”

“Kerry and I just finished our sweep of the top floor. Not much here.”

“Already!?”

Lindsay chuckled. “Kerry and I split up briefly. I suppose you and Ray can’t, since you only have one radio. Anyway, starting on the second floor now.”

Miles relayed Lindsay’s news to Ray and continued down the hall. The next office they looked at was locked, but Ray opened it from the inside easily – if by easily you meant that it took him three tries to even make contact with the handle. The door was wood, but there was a window on the left side of it. This one seemed more promising, with filing cabinets across from the door that looked in use, and a fridge and a desk off to the right that was not immediately seen from the window. A briefcase lay abandoned on the desk, but no cooler was in sight.

Miles went straight to the fridge and yanked the door open. With an exclamation of victory, he spotted two vials of blood labeled with his friends’ names set into a tray – as well as several others labeled with strangers’ names. This was it.

Back at the car, Caleb suddenly stiffened. His hand flew to his ear. “Someone has entered the building!”

“ _What_ ,” Geoff snapped. Similar cries of confusion were echoed through the radio.

“She’s at the front door, she’s hesitating and – I can’t see her!”

“ _WHAT?_ ”

“She’s disappeared; I can’t see her from any angle.” Caleb was speaking fast, starting to freak out.

“Any idea what floor she was headed to? Up or down?” Geoff demanded. Caleb shook his head sadly, his eyes wide as he stared back at Geoff.

“We found the blood, though!” Miles said quickly.

“Destroy it and get the fuck out of there! _Do not be seen._ ”

Miles decided that reporting the news to a radio-less Ray was more important to do first. He turned to Ray to tell him the news and the words died in his throat. Ray was at the filing cabinets, pulling them open and rifling through the documents, a look of intense concentration on his face.

“What are you doing!?” Miles cried. “There’s someone else in the building; for all we know she could be coming here. Caleb can’t see her!”

Ray spared Miles a brief glance. “Miles, there are files in here, reports. We could get critical information here – we could find out what the researcher intended to…”

“ _What are you doing here?_ ”

Miles grew deadly silent, as did Ray, who dropped the file he was holding. The papers slipped straight through his fingers as they ceased to be tangible. The doctor hadn’t seen Miles, focusing entirely on Ray. She marched over to the stunned Puerto Rican and grabbed him by the wrist.

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Ray hadn’t figured out yet how to make himself solid without trying to grab something first. His wide, fearful eyes told Miles that the lad was just as surprised as him. Miles had to act _now_.

“ _Wake him up!_ ” he screamed into the microphone, loud enough for everyone to wince. He began to glow. “ _Wake him now!_ ” Without waiting for a reply, Miles put all of his effort into releasing light. The doctor looked towards him, startled. A blinding light filled the room, followed by the tinkle of breaking glass. Thirty seconds later, the light faded, and the two intruders were gone. The entire tray of vials laid on the floor, smashed, the blood mixing together on the tiled floor amongst the shards.

* * *

 

“ _Wake him now!_ ”

Geoff reacted. He took a tennis ball he reserved for this very purpose out of his cup holder and threw it at Ray as hard as could. It hit the lad’s stomach with a dull _thwump_ and bounced off the seat onto the floor. Ray jolted upwards and scooted back against the car door, clutching and rubbing at his eyes. Geoff turned back towards Caleb.

“Status, I want status _now._ ”

“Kerry and I are out, he’s got the cameras covered in shadows… Okay, I see Miles!” Lindsay reported dutifully, a little breathless but otherwise keeping her calm remarkably well. “We’re splitting up and making sure no one is following us before we get back to the car.”

“Good plan,” Geoff said. “Caleb, watch out for them and help them avoid suspicious figures.”

Caleb looked tense for some reason, but agreed. Then he tapped Geoff lightly on the arm and jerked his head towards the back seat. Geoff twisted around in his seat to look at Ray.

“Aw, fuck. Caleb, you’re in charge.” He ripped off his mic and earpiece and opened his door to get to the back seat.

Ray was pale and panting shallowly in short breaths. His hands were pushed up underneath his glasses to cover his eyes. He was swaying from side to side and trembling as if with a chill. His lips were parted slightly, his chest heaving with pained gasps, sweat beginning to bead at his temples.

Geoff opened the side door and climbed into the back seat. He put one knee on the floor and sat on the edge of the seat. The lad dropped his hands from his eyes, one hand pulling at his shirt. “Ray, you need to breathe.”

“Geoff…” Ray wheezed. “I – why do I – my chest – it hurts…”

“Breathe, Ray! Breathe! Don’t try to fucking talk!”

Ray very obviously tried to follow his boss’s directions, but only succeeded in gasping louder. He sucked in air like a fish out of water, but his breaths were still short and quick. He looked ready to pass out.

“Geoff – I feel – I can’t…” Ray looked distressed; he didn’t understand what was happening.

Geoff clasped one of Ray’s hands, finding it clammy and cold. He could feel Ray’s pulse beat fast and light against his fingertips. “You’re panicking. I want you to concentrate on the sound of my voice. Don’t think about what just happened, only think about me and my voice. I want you to breathe in for four seconds, and exhale for seven. Can you do that? Breathe in – one, two, three, four; out – one, two…”

Geoff murmured to Ray for three long, drawn out minutes, maybe four. Finally the lad managed to calm his breathing down, enough to talk and sort of think properly. He still shook horribly, his hands cool to the touch. “What… what happened?” he asked quietly, his eyes locked on Geoff’s.

“You tell me, buddy.”

Ray let go of Geoff’s hand and looked at his own. “I… I wanted to look through the doctor’s files, but then she came up behind me. She grabbed me. She… She grabbed my – my wrist…” His breath started to speed up again, and Geoff had to remind him to count. “I tried to get away, but I couldn’t – couldn’t phase through her… And then Miles was shouting, and – and I woke up here…”

“It’s okay, you’re back,” Geoff said. “You’re safe.”

Ray let out a long sigh through puffed cheeks. He readjusted himself on the seat so that he was sitting normally and leaned forward to put his head in his hands. Geoff, after some hesitation, reached out and awkwardly rubbed the lad’s back. He glanced out the windshield and spotted Lindsay returning, the first person back. He shifted to get out of the car but was stopped briefly by a hand on his arm.

“Geoff,” Ray croaked. “… Thanks.”

“… No problem, buddy.”

* * *

 

Monday morning dawned. Geoff strolled into the Achievement Hunter office and threw his bag down next to his desk. He was the last one to officially arrive. He sat down in his chair with a sigh and booted his computer, his fellow Hunters doing similar activities and preparing for the day.

“Have you got the AHWU prepared, Jack?” he asked his bearded companion. Jack nodded and patted his notebook.

“We’re pretty much set to film, just need to set up the…”

The door slammed open, making the room’s occupants jump. Gavin nearly fell out of his chair, but was steadied by Michael.

“ _Geoff!_ ”

“Oh, shit,” Geoff muttered under his breath, still facing his computer. He turned around slowly in his chair to face Matt, who was clutching a slightly wrinkled newspaper. “Good morning to you, too,” he said, trying to stay nonchalant.

“Did you do this?” Matt demanded, jabbing a finger at an article.

“Do what?”

Matt marched over to Geoff and thrust the paper in his face. It was too close to actually read anything, but he instinctively took the paper and held it at a legible distance. Circled in angry red marker was a column about a break-in early Sunday morning at the hospital’s research facility, with a little gray picture of the building at the top. There was no forced entry, and the security cameras strangely went dark at around the time of the break-in. Nothing was taken, but several blood samples from Dr. Lehrer’s office were destroyed.

“Huh,” Geoff said. “Weird.”

Matt ripped the paper away from him. “I know you did it, Geoff. At the very least, I know _Kerry_ was there. And if Kerry was there, I’m _certain_ you were instructing him. Why couldn’t you just leave the blood samples alone?”

Nervous sweat pricked at the back of Geoff’s neck. The other Achievement Hunters were quiet, contributing to a heavy silence weighing on the room. Ray began tapping his foot anxiously. The other four men did not know of the plan and were staring at their bosses intensely. Geoff stood so that he was eye level with Matt.

“I know we disagree on a few things concerning this whole… situation,” he said. Matt crossed his arms but let him continue. “I did it to keep our employees – our _friends_ – safe. You _have_ to agree that letting Them take the blood was not an option.”

“It _was_ , Geoff,” Matt hissed. “Maybe it wasn’t a good one, but what you did was risky. Stupidly fucking risky.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I just wish you had talked to me before doing something so fucking stupid.”

“I’ll make sure to get your advice next time I want you to talk me out of something,” Geoff said. Matt couldn’t hold back a twitch of a smile. “Now, if you excuse us, we have an AHWU to film.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like the team names?  
> For those who might be confused by the term "remote viewing," it's like when someone in a fantasy novel uses a crystal ball or a pool of water or something to spy on someone. Basically, using a certain object, you are looking at a place or person that you can't see from where you actually are. The way Caleb's works, is that he looks into one reflective surface and out another.


	10. Link

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure anyone realizes just how much I tend to write this fic on my phone first. Being at a job where you're often forced to wait between ending work and going home does that to you. But hey, it means this can be updated more often. Hope you enjoy.

On his way out to lunch later that day, Geoff was pulled aside by Ray. The lad put a hand on his tattooed arm and tugged him back into the AH office as the others left. “Geoff, I wanna talk to you.”

“Sure, buddy, what about?” Geoff studied his employee, curious. He guessed immediately that this had something to do with Saturday night by the way Ray shuffled uneasily from foot to foot. The lad had never been this awkward before when he wanted to ask Geoff something.

“I want to go back.”

Geoff couldn’t speak properly for a few moments, instead opting to just sputter random phonemes. When he found his tongue again, he said, “Are you fucking insane? Do you even remember what happened last time!?”

Ray clenched his jaw as his ears turned red. Of course he did. Only he, Geoff, and Caleb knew what had happened in the car, though everyone involved knew that the doctor could touch Ray’s projection. Either one of these was a good enough reason to not go back to the research building.

“I was just surprised,” he muttered, embarrassed. “It won’t happen again.”

Geoff sighed loudly. “I’ll humor you for now. Why the fuck do you want to go back?”

Ray squared his shoulders. “The doctor kept files of her research in her office. It might give us some clues as to what she is researching exactly, what’s she’s found. It might even give us some more information on Them, on who They are.”

Geoff grew thoughtfully quiet. Ray _was_ right – going back could lead them to a breakthrough that the gent had been hoping for since this whole mess started. But on the other hand…

“I see your point. This could be too great of an opportunity to pass up. _But,_ ” he added sharply when he saw Ray brighten, “I’m still not sure about this. She could have moved the files to a safer place – or worse, she could be expecting us. It’s clear as fucking day that she can do some things that others can’t, for whatever reason. She _touched_ you, Ray. She _made contact_ with you, which otherwise should be impossible unless _you_ wish it. This is an incredibly fucking dangerous enemy to make.”

Geoff felt terrible for saying those words, watching Ray take each hit of his reasoning like a blow to the stomach. The Puerto Rican still adamantly fought for his cause, however. In some ways, his stubbornness was admirable. He kept his gaze locked on the older man’s.

“We won’t fucking know unless we try.”

Geoff sighed again, running a hand through his dark, messy hair. He fucking hated this, especially because he knew Ray was right. It was dangerous, but… who knew when they would next get a chance like this? Geoff was silent for a long time; Ray was starting to get antsy by the time he answered.

“You’re absolutely correct, but I want Matt in on this.”

* * *

  Ryan returned from lunch as the fourth person back. Ray and Geoff were late, but they had also been late to start, so it wasn’t unexpected. He sat down at his desk only for Michael to speak up.

“Hey Ryan, I have this new song I want you to hear. It reminded me of you; I think you’ll like it,” he said, his eyes glittering. Ryan paused, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay… Let’s hear it,” he said cautiously.

Michael clicked his mouse a few times and suddenly his computer was blaring, “ _I wanna fuck you like an animal…_ ”

The look Ryan gave Michael set the lad off into howls of laughter. Gavin and Jack started sniggering in their seats as well. Clearly Ryan’s new ability involving animals was a source of humor for the others. Michael switched off the song with another click of the mouse. “Okay, okay, seriously this time, I’ve got another song…”

“No!”

“Ryan, this one’s for real!”

“Uuuugggghhhh… _Fine_.”

“ _You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel…_ ”

Ryan dove from his chair rather spectacularly in an effort to reach Michael’s desk and switch off the song. Michael, despite roaring in laughter, had enough bodily control to grab Ryan and attempt to push him away, trying to get the song to play for as long as possible. Ryan’s weight, however, brought both of them to the floor. The two grown men started rolling around and wrestling on the ground. Pretty soon, Ryan’s superior height and weight allowed him to pin Michael underneath his body. Before he could take advantage of his current victory, he was tackled from the side by Gavin. Jack by now was laughing so hard that tears were forming at his eyes.

“ _Sweat baby sweat baby, sex is a Texas drought…_ ”

Great, the song was on loop.

Ryan tried to push Gavin off but was pulled back to the floor by Michael. Team Nice Dynamite was tag teaming against him beautifully. Ryan rolled, making Gavin slip off his back and forcing Michael out from under him. But now the two lads were above him – something he soon discovered was a tactical error when they threw themselves heavily on top of the gent’s back. Ryan let out a grunt as the air in his lungs was forcefully expelled.

“ _I want you smothered, want you covered like my Waffle House hashbrowns…_ ”

Ryan heaved upwards, trying to get the lads literally off of his back. He didn’t make it more than a couple inches off the ground when Team Nice Dynamite put even more of their weight on him, his arms collapsing beneath him as he was pushed back to the ground. The song was still playing, and Jack was doing jack shit to help him out, preferring to watch and laugh. Ryan cast his mind about desperately, searching for a creature that might help him. Unfortunately, he only sensed insects – and even then not nearly enough of those to help anyway. There _were_ a ton of ants, but he did _not_ want to try to communicate with a hive mind.

“ _So let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel…_ ”

Like two askew pipes being forced together, a channel opened up between Ryan’s mind and another’s. A current of information began to flow between the two minds like a switch had been thrown. Ryan got a very clear image in his mind’s eye of a large, leathery elephant in her enclosure in the Austin zoo. More specifically, he got an impression of everything the elephant was experiencing at this moment.

<Hey buddy!> said the elephant happily, though she didn’t exactly “say” anything. Rather, her intent was translated into English, and Ryan’s English was translated into images and expressions she could understand. Ryan got the feeling that the elephant had as clear a mental picture of his situation as he did hers. <Ooh, you’re playing! And losing!>

<Wh- what? What’s going on?> Ryan asked, bewildered. <How is this even possible; you should be out of my range!>

The elephant was happy to offer an explanation. <Oh buddy, I thought you of all two-legs would know this! In times of distress, you can do greater things than you normally would! I can help you out, buddy!>

<How so?>

<By lending you some strength, of course! My afternoon is gonna be lazy, so I don’t need it! Come on, buddy, no one likes to lose!>

<You got that right…>

This entire conversation took less than thirty seconds, as mental thoughts travel a lot faster than spoken words. Ryan lost track of his mental image of the elephant as pure energy surged across the mental link. His heartbeat sped up dramatically as adrenaline and borrowed strength began coursing through his bloodstream. Energy travelled across the link for only about five seconds before the elephant closed it on her end, leaving Ryan alone with his thoughts. It was more than enough. With a great shout, Ryan heaved upwards, tipping the two lads off of him. They held on to him for as long as possible, but were soon forced to stumble off. As soon as the link had closed, the borrowed strength had begun to fade, but luckily it lasted long enough to end the fight. Ryan was free to go and shut of that damned song.

Jack and the two lads had stopped laughing at Ryan’s feat of strength. “How’d you do that?” the bearded man asked incredulously. He had seen Ryan first struggle to lift two grown men and then subsequently do so as though they weighed as much as a feather. The last of the elephant’s strength left Ryan, taking about nine or ten times as long to ebb as it did to supply. He felt exhausted now, every muscle in his body aching and threatening to tremble at the mere thought of exertion.

“I… I’m not entirely sure,” he said wearily. “I think I just borrowed some strength from an elephant at the zoo.” He blinked slowly. “And now I want a nap…”

* * *

  “You _what?_ ”

Ray and Geoff stood in front of Matt’s desk as the CEO stood up and slammed his hands down. Matt glanced between the two men rapidly in disbelief.  His gaze finally settled on Geoff. He straightened and took a deep breath in an effort to calm down.

“You let me believe that it was just you and Kerry who had broken into the research building. Now you’re telling me not only were _seven_ of my employees in on it and actively helping, but you want to fucking go _back_.”

“It’s my idea,” Ray said quickly. “Not Geoff’s. I brought it up with him, and he wanted to talk to you about it.”

Matt sighed and crossed his arms. “You realize I can’t let you do this. It’s too fucking dangerous. What would you even hope to gain?”

“There are files, Matt,” Geoff said steadily. “Ray found them last time, but didn’t have the chance to look through them. We could gain intel – find out what she’s doing, what They are doing.”

Matt fell silent for a few moments, breathing loudly and deeply. Finally, he said, “Why do I get the feeling that you’re going to do this even if I say no."

“We won’t,” Geoff insisted. “Matt, I’m sorry we went Saturday night, even though I felt it was absolutely necessary. I don’t want to go again without your support.”

Before Matt could answer, there was a knock at the office door. Jack poked his head in. “Sorry to bother, but could you come and scan Ryan? Something strange just happened. It seems he has a new ability.”

Matt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sure, Jack, I’ll meet you over at your office.” Jack nodded and left. Matt walked out from behind the desk and paused in front of the door. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Okay. You can return. _But_ I want only those who have gone before to go. No one else. The five directly involved in the action have a better grasp of their abilities than the others, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt – or caught. I want every precaution to be taken. If it gets to be even slightly too dangerous, I want you to pull out immediately. Got it?”

“Got it,” said Ray and Geoff in unison. As Matt exited his office, they looked at each other and grinned. Matt had green-lighted their plan. This was going great.

* * *


	11. Return

This was not going great.

Almost immediately, there were problems the next Friday night. The six of them were back at the research building, Geoff and Caleb once again in the gent’s car a block or two away, Ray unconscious in the back seat. Caleb found out very quickly that he could not see inside the building. No matter what he did, he could not access any reflective surface in the hospital.

“This seems weird,” Geoff mused. “Should we give up?”

There was a brief pause, then Miles said, “Ray is adamant against that. He says it’s too early to give up.” Another brief pause. Geoff could hear over the radio shouts of indignation from what could only be Ray. Miles reported in again. “Ray can’t get past a certain point. It’s like there’s an invisible wall, but only for him!”

“Alright,” Geoff said, “if Ray can’t get in, then there’s no point in continuing. No one else can unlock the doors.”

“No way!” Geoff and Caleb jumped in their seats, twisting around to look at Ray in the back seat. He had awoken and was sitting up. “We’re getting in there. I should be able to project once on the other side of that invisible wall.” He made for the car door, but Geoff reached behind him and grabbed the lad’s arm.

“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Geoff said harshly. “This is fucking suspicious as dicks. Something is different here. Caleb can’t see, and I don’t want you leaving your unconscious body vulnerable while your little projection goes prancing around for documents.”

Ray gritted his teeth. Geoff was technically right, but he _had_ to do this. They needed these documents, and to do that, his co-workers needed him. “This is the only way, Geoff. We _have_ to do this. We might never get another chance. We’ll hide my body, it’ll be fine. I promise.”

It was Geoff’s turn to grit his teeth. “I don’t like this at all,” he said. “But the information is too valuable. Fine, go on.”

Ray was out the car in a flash before his boss could change his mind. Caleb told him quickly the best route to take to avoid anyone, and he walked swiftly down the street and turned down an alley out of sight. Soon Ray was once again outside the research building, this time feeling very weighty. He saw his three fellow mutants around the corner of the building and cautiously stepped forward, pausing at where he was forced to stop last time. He reached out a hand only to feel air. He grinned and walked over to Lindsay, Kerry, and Miles. Just a few minutes ago, he had walked into what felt like a solid wall, even though no one could see anything. The other three had walked past it just fine, but Ray’s projection hadn’t been able to move forward at all, despite running several feet in either direction. The invisible wall had seemed to encase the entire building.

Ray now sunk to the ground, sitting cross-legged and leaning against the side of the building. He closed his eyes and started to breathe deeply. He had done this many times by now, and was able to easily and quickly project. He started to feel drowsy and felt a gentle pull in his gut. A lightheaded feeling washed over him, making him feel like his head was a balloon starting to float away from his body. This was followed by a sensation of falling, and he jolted “awake.” He materialized beside his now slumped body a few inches above the ground before dropping to his feet. He grinned at his friends. Miles reported the success to Geoff.

As Kerry engulfed the front of the building with shadows, Lindsay and Miles made to pick up Ray’s body. “Be careful,” Ray said. “If you move me too suddenly, you’ll force me back into my body.” When he got affirmative nods, Ray turned and passed straight through the wall of the building. He made his way to the darkened reception area and to the front door. Before he opened it, however, he glanced around the room for a hiding place. He spotted a small dark door and poked his head through it. Perfect – it was a janitor’s closet. It was locked, but he forced it open with relative ease. Then he moved on to the front door. He tried to open the door, but his hand phased through. “Fuck,” he whispered. He took a steadying breath. He was more nervous than he realized. He balled his hands into fists and tried once more. This time he was much more successful.

He pointed at the janitor’s closet when his teammates entered the building. “Put my body in there and shut the door. I’ve unlocked it already. I’m going on ahead.”

“Ray, wait, don’t go alone,” Lindsay hissed, but Ray was already sinking through the floor. It was a little bizarre to watch him do it, especially when he gave them a little wave. No one had seen him go through a floor or ceiling before – he’d only done walls. Everyone had assumed this stemmed from not knowing how to float. Clearly, however, the Puerto Rican had been practicing on his own.

Kerry marched over to the janitor’s closet and yanked it open. Lindsay and Miles were right behind him, carefully shuffling over with Ray’s limp body. They slowly lowered him to the ground in the closet and gently propped him against one of the shelves. They backed out of the closet and shut the door. They started towards the hallway by the receptionist’s desk and the stairs to try and join Ray in the basement. Lindsay suddenly stopped short, going pale and grabbing the other two by the arm. Miles and Kerry didn’t have to ask why – it became apparent soon after.

Several _chiks_ met their ears. Five pistols were pointed at the three intruders. Leather shoes squeaked against the linoleum floor as three large men stood up from behind the receptionist’s desk. Two more approached from down the hallway. They all wore black uniforms ready for combat and bulky-looking helmets with dark visors. Guards.

“Uh oh,” Lindsay muttered.

Geoff’s response was immediate. “ _‘Uh oh’! what do you mean by ‘uh oh’?”_

Lindsay melted back into the shadows. She backed away from her two partners and tried to sneak around the edge of the room to get behind the guards. A couple pistols followed her. “Don’t try that, missy,” said one of the guards gruffly. She froze. “You may be invisible, but you still got a heat signature.” Lindsay glanced back towards Miles and Kerry. She met Miles’s eyes and nodded curtly before throwing her arm up to cover her eyes. Kerry dived to the side as Miles let loose a brilliant flash of light. He left an imprint glowing and darted to the side.

Kerry rolled along the ground and backed up against a wall, throwing the room once again back into darkness. The guards were stumbling, clearly not expecting the sudden brightness and subsequent shadows. Lindsay dashed around the edge of the room, yanking the nearest guard’s gun out of his hand and pistol-whipped him in the jaw. His head snapped backwards and he crumpled. One guard swung at her, and she ducked. She heard the snap of a gun as a still-blinded guard shot at her.

These weren’t pistols, she realized. They were tasers. She aimed at the nearest guard and pulled the trigger. Two stun probes were launched out of her gun and attached themselves to the guard. The guard she shot began to shake uncontrollably as currents of electricity jolted through his chest. She launched herself at a third guard and brought him to the ground with her weight. She wrestled his gun away and shot him point-blank. It had a lesser effect on him, as the electricity had less distance to travel, but he was still incapacitated. Lindsay glanced around her to locate Miles and Kerry. The two men had tag teamed the remaining two guards. The guards lay crippled on the floor, taser probes sticking out of their chests.

Meanwhile Geoff was screaming in their ears. “ _What’s going on? I hear fighting! Fucking report!_ ”

“Geoff, stop yelling,” Lindsay said quickly. “Ray has gone on ahead. We were jumped by guards. They had special visors. Geoff I – I think they were prepared for us.”

Geoff was silent on the other end as he digested this information. “Ray doesn’t have a fucking radio,” he said. His voice was sharp and angry. “And he’s not going to get out on his own. Get him! Fucking get him and get the fuck out of there!”

* * *

 

 Ray waved at his friends as he sunk through the floor. He had been practicing drifting down through floors without telling anyone. He couldn’t _quite_ figure out how to float, per se, but he could “forget” that gravity had to affect him. Either way, he could move faster on his own, and the faster they got the files and got out, the better. They would catch up to him in a minute anyway. He mostly just didn’t want to watch them put his body away. It was boring and kind of creepy.

Ray floated down into the hallway just outside Dr. Lehrer’s office. Good. He rubbed his hands together. He was feeling very lucky. He stepped steadily through the door and turned around to unlock it. Then he strode over to the filing cabinets. He tugged one open and felt his stomach drop. It was empty.

He heard a quiet chuckle and whirled around. Doctor Georgia Lehrer herself was walking calmly towards them, a smirk on her face. She had been sitting at her desk waiting for him. She still wore her white lab coat, her short dark hair twisted and pinned out of her face. “I can’t believe you came back,” she said. “I of course moved my files, but I knew there was a chance you’d be back.” Before Ray could react, before he could even think of melting into the wall, she had reached him. The doctor grabbed Ray by the throat and lifted him up off the ground as easily as a feather. Instinctually he started to choke. He reminded himself frantically that as a projected consciousness he didn’t actually need to breathe. Still, the doctor was touching him – _touching_ him, when he should have been incorporeal.

“Surprised, are you?” asked the doctor. She smiled. “I’m a telekinetic. Your little parlor trick has some trouble getting around real psychic energy.” She paused, examining him as he struggled to escape her grasp. His hands scrabbled at her wrists, but she barely seemed to notice. “So I was right… You activate a sort of telekinetic membrane when you want to touch or be touched as a projection. My telekinesis forces you to activate this. Fascinating…”

Ray managed to stop himself from choking, but he was still having trouble speaking with the pressure around his throat. His perception of touch was strange – he couldn’t feel hot or cold, but he felt pressure from solid objects. He tried zipping back to his body. He could _feel_ the tug in his gut as his spirit tried to teleport to its home. The tug got to be so hard, it almost hurt, but it was no use. The doctor’s grip was too strong. Ray started to tremble in fear. He was trapped. What was she going to do to him?

“You’ve never visited the astral plane, now, have you?” the doctor said finally.

Ray finally managed to speak. “The astral _what_?”

The doctor grinned, and Ray shivered despite not being able to feel cold. “Well, now is a good time to make some discoveries, wouldn’t you agree?”

“No –”

“Hush now, and quit trying to return to your body. In fact…” Ray saw the air bend around the doctor as she projected a telekinetic force field. It expanded from behind her and started to form a bubble around the two of them. He watched, terrified of what would happen. She seemed to have something planned, and though he didn’t know what it was, he had a feeling that in a few seconds he would find out.

The telekinetic force field stopped forming around a small space behind Ray, forming a hole about an inch and a half in diameter. He didn’t know why it stopped, but evidently the doctor did. She smiled again. “From your expression, I am certain you don’t know what’s happening. You see, every astral projection is connected to its body by a spiritual thread. This enables the projection to actually find its way easily back to its body.” Horrified understanding dawned on Ray’s face, his brown eyes going wide. He began to struggle even more. “But if it were to be cut…”

“No! Stop!”

The doctor’s brow furrowed in concentration, and Ray began to scream.

If it had hurt being forced to project by Jack, that pain didn’t even come close to this. It would be like comparing a paper cut to a broken bone. Never before had Ray felt so much pain. It felt like one of his limbs was being amputated without anesthesia, except that that limb was his whole body. Every perceived nerve ending was on fire, tingling sharply, burning him from the inside out. The telekinetic force field’s hole behind Ray steadily shrank. Ray’s projected body began to convulse unwillingly, shaking uncontrollably in the doctor’s grasp. Faintly he was aware of his teammates approaching quickly down the hall, following his screams.

The hole closed.

His whole incorporeal body went limp. If he could pass out, he would have willingly. Instead he was forced to just stay, exhausted, his head lolling back, his eyes burning and dim. He felt, for the first time, actually intangible, like his body could dissipate at any minute. He felt empty and lost.

It was strange how he had never noticed he could sense the location of his real body until he could not sense it at all.

“Ray!” It was Kerry. His friends burst through the door.

Ray summoned up the last of his energy as the doctor used her free hand to swipe at the air next to her, her nails dragging slowly and forcefully through the air. He craned his neck weakly to see Lindsay, Kerry, and Miles running towards him.

“Stop!” he shouted. They hesitated. “Get the fuck out of here! Now!”

“Not without you!” Lindsay said confidently.

Ray shook his head slowly, aware that a portal had opened next to him where the doctor had scratched the air. It shimmered in a multitude of colors, a jagged rip in the fabric of reality. It was actually rather pretty.

“It’s too late,” Ray said, his voice strained. “Save yourselves.”

“With a triumphant laugh, the doctor threw him through the portal.

* * *

 

“ _NOOOOOOOO!_ ” Kerry screamed hoarsely. Ray’s projection seemed to fall slowly through the air, flickering around the edges weakly. As easily as a rag doll, the doctor tossed him through the portal she had ripped into the air. It closed behind him, swallowed him whole.

“ _You monster!_ ” Lindsay cried. Miles, with a terrific shout, pushed past her and Kerry. Team Shadowcat had barely enough time to shut their eyes as Miles flashed blindingly bright. Immediately afterwards, Kerry summoned dense shadows.

“ _What’s going on?_ ” Geoff was agitatedly shouting. “ _Report!_ ”

Caleb nearly smacked him on the arm, but resisted. “I can see again! Well, sort of. The block has been lifted, but now Kerry has shrouded the room with shadows.”

“Ray’s been— Ray’s been—” Miles couldn’t seem to find the right words, letting his sentence hang.

Lindsay melted into the shadows. The doctor had recoiled, throwing her arm up against the bright light. And now that it was suddenly dark, with the light burned into her retinas, she couldn’t see a thing.

“ _Pull out! Pull out!_ ” Geoff ordered.

Lindsay snuck up behind the doctor and aimed a kick at the back of her legs. The doctor crashed to the floor onto her knees. But as she fell she flung out her arm to where Lindsay had been. A hard force collided into Lindsay, hurtling her backwards where she smacked her head against the wall. She crumpled. The doctor stood back up and held her hands out towards Kerry and Miles, who had begun charging her. They were stopped in their tracks and lifted off the ground.

“ _I’m ordering you to pull out!_ ” Geoff was manic. He was going to lose his fucking mind. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white. All he could hear was the sounds of battle and occasional shouts. No one was talking to him.

“They were – prepared for us,” Kerry wheezed. “We’re trapped. She’s too strong. Ray is gone. I’m sor—”

The headphone crackled and then began to ring loudly. Caleb and Geoff both winced and pulled it away from their ears. The two men could only look at each other in shocked silence.

* * *

 

The doctor stood above the three unconscious bodies surrounded by four guards. She had hired nine in total, figuring it was more than enough, but still five had been incapacitated. How annoying. 

"Search the building for the fourth mutant," she said, spitting the word " _mutant_ " out like she had tasted something foul. "When you find him, do not touch him. Get me. He shouldn't be pulled back to his body anymore by sudden movement, but I still want to be careful. It's time to transport these mutants to my other headquarters."

* * *

 

This was not great. Four of their employees were incapacitated, taken by a doctor who was one of Them. Ray was “gone,” which Geoff could only assume meant the worst. This was the worst possible scenario. He felt sick to his stomach. He wanted nothing more than to run in there and find them, but he knew that would only get him caught as well. His friends could be dead and/or dying, and it was all his fault. He had convinced Matt to let them go in the first place and had taken charge of the mission without properly preparing them.

Geoff did not drive home for nearly an hour. He sat there with his fingers entangled in his hair and his head down as Caleb trembled in the seat next to him, shaking fingers resting on his mirror’s surface. How was he going to report this to Matt? To the other Achievement Hunters, who didn’t even know this had been planned again? A nauseating jolt of realization assaulted Geoff’s gut.

How was he going to tell Michael that his newly-wedded wife was now missing and in grave danger?

* * *


	12. Drift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, guys. We're heading into the last two chapters, maybe three. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

Michael was asleep when his phone rang. He reached blindly for his iPhone on his bedside table, smacking the tabletop with his fingers until they brushed smooth plastic. Without even looking at the screen, he automatically swiped his thumb across the bottom of the screen and put the phone up to his ear.

“Nnnnyello?” he said coarsely, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

“Michael?”

“Geoff? What’s up?”

“It’s… I need you to come to Roosterteeth. Now.”

Michael yawned. “Can’t it wait?”

“No.”

He blinked hard and turned to look at his wife – or rather, where his wife usually slept. Michael frowned. Lindsay had told him to go to bed before him, saying she was going to be up for a little bit longer. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and squinted at his alarm clock. Yeah, she definitely should have been to bed by now. “Geoff, it’s nearly three in the morning, what do you want me to be at Roosterteeth for?” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, walking over to his bedroom door to peek into the rest of his apartment. The apartment was empty and dark. “Huh, where’s Lindsay?”

Geoff made a strangled gulping noise. “Just come to Roosterteeth now,” he said quickly and hung up. Michael was left blinking wearily in his sleep attire, holding a silent phone up to his ear.

* * *

 

Michael was one of the first to arrive at Roosterteeth. He surmised that this was because Geoff had called him first. The other Roosterteeth mutants arrived one by one, each in varying stages of dress and arousal. Ryan arrived wearing his glasses and the wrinkled shirt he had worn earlier today and looked like he was used to being woken up in the middle of the night. Gavin had thrown on an old T-shirt with a rather large hole at the hem on top of his red plaid pajama bottoms and looked almost too tired to function. His hair was in the worst mess Michael had ever seen. All in all, only Geoff and Caleb looked fully awake.

Michael counted four people missing, and he knew he wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Who could miss the lack of antics from Ray and the tag team effort of Miles and Kerry? And who more than Michael could miss the absence of Lindsay?

Matt was the last one to arrive. Everyone else had started chatting to each other, but Michael remained silent, staring hard at Geoff. His boss was standing with Caleb apart from the crowd that had gathered, dry-washing his hands and murmuring agitatedly to the younger man next to him. When Matt slammed his car door and locked his car, Geoff jumped and studied the crowd in front of him.

“Great, everyone’s here,” Geoff said, stepping forward.

“What do you mean, ‘everyone’?” Michael asked. “We’re missing four people!” He spotted to guilty look on his boss’s face and started to get frustrated. “Geoff, do you know where Ray is? And Lindsay? Kerry and Miles?” When Geoff took a fraction of a moment too long to respond, he snapped, “ _Do you know where my wife is?_ ”

“Michael, please calm down,” Gavin said anxiously, stepping close to his friend. “Let him speak.”

Geoff licked his lips and took a deep, shaky breath. “As you all know by now, the six of us and Joel were responsible for planning and breaking into the research building last Saturday.”

“Get to the point!” Michael demanded.

“We, uh, the six of us – we went back there tonight.” He looked at Matt, who crossed his arms, waiting. The silence was dreadfully heavy. “The doctor whose office we broke into, whose documents we were going back for, was waiting for us.” Geoff closed his eyes and tilted his face upwards towards the bright moon. “Lindsay, Miles, Kerry, and Ray have been captured.”

“What?” whispered Jack, his voice trembling.

Michael felt like the world was plummeting beneath his feet. He couldn’t speak. He stared, glassy eyed, gazing at nothing as worst-case scenarios raced through his head. His hands balled into fists, his nails biting into his palms in an effort to ground himself in something. He felt as though he should fall, felt as though gravity had increased on him tenfold. Gavin reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, but he shook the hand off. He took a step towards Geoff, who looked at him with a pained expression.

“Michael, I’m so sorry,” Geoff said with a weak, wavering voice. “I didn’t—” He was cut off by a wildly swinging fist. Geoff stumbled as Michael punched the gent as hard as he could in the jaw. Geoff didn’t even toggle his indestructibility – he wanted to feel the hurt as much as Michael wanted to inflict it. Didn’t he deserve to be punched at least? Didn’t he deserve to feel any fraction of the pain Michael probably felt? Didn’t he deserve to be punished? His jaw buzzed as his healing powers activated. He winced despite himself. He kind of wanted to keep a bruise. He rubbed his jaw as Caleb stepped forward and warded Michael off.

“Michael, please…”

“ _What the fuck were you doing, Geoff?_ ” Michael shouted. “ _Why did you fucking put them in fucking danger like that? You fucking idiot, you’ve fucking killed them all! You’ve fucking killed my fucking wife!_ ”

Gavin and Burnie dashed forward and yanked Michael back. Caleb held both of his hands in front of him defensively as Geoff slouched and stared hard at the ground. “Michael, they’re not dead, only captured. Listen.” Michael glared at him, and he instinctually took a step back. “ _Please_ just listen to me. Using my ability, I was able to follow them after their capture. The four of them were put into a van and driven to a large building out in the suburbs. The doctor is a mutant too – she’s a telekinetic, capable of making some sort of force field that blocks astral projections and my sight. But she doesn’t seem to know about me, so I was able to survey the new building. Currently they’re all alive and seemingly okay. If I had to guess, she probably wants them for testing.”

“ _Testing?!_ ” Michael screamed, trying to escape Burnie’s and Gavin’s grasp, pulling with all his might. The other two men were leaning backwards with effort. “ _I will not let my fucking wife be fucking tested on!_ ”

“Calm down before I knock you out,” Burnie growled.

Michael finally stopped struggling against the hands holding him. He sagged a little, looking at Geoff with drowning eyes. Everyone else had stepped away from him, giving him space. “We’ve got to fucking rescue them,” he said. “We have to fucking go get them.”

“We _will_ , Michael,” Geoff said, squaring his shoulders. He wanted to get them back, too. Of course he fucking did. “But we can’t just barge in there without a plan.”

Joel stepped forward. “It’s getting to be too late tonight as well. We can make a plan and be ready to go in a night or two.”

“A night or two?” Michael was furious. “They could be seriously _hurt_ in a fucking _night or two_!”

“Michael, **shut up** ,” Jack ordered. Michael’s mouth clamped shut and he made a strangling sound as he tried to yell more.

“I want to go,” Gavin said.

“Absolutely not,” Matt snapped. “You’ve been to what, two meetings? You’re nowhere _near_ ready to go up against another mutant.”

“And guards,” Caleb added unhelpfully.

“Well what are _you_ going to do?” Gavin shot back. “Bloody _identify_ them to death?”

“Gavin’s right on this one,” Geoff cut in. “Actually, I think it should be us Achievement Hunters who go, and us only.”

Gavin grinned triumphantly, and Michael seemed a little calmer at this proposal. Jack and Ryan looked nervous, but didn’t speak up against it.

“Wait, but why would you do that?” Burnie asked, curious. “Wouldn’t someone like me be useful?”

“Burnie, I mean this as no offense to you, but we’re going to be expecting a lot of guards. You won’t be useful against non-mutants. Same goes for you, Matt, and you, Joel. Besides that, if something goes wrong, we don’t want you or Matt captured. Worst case scenario, They would have your DNA, and who knows what They can do with that.” The three older men looked a little miffed, but begrudgingly agreed. “That is not to say you can’t tag along, but you’ll need to stay in the cars, hidden, with Caleb.” Geoff motioned to the other Achievement Hunters and addressed them. “What do you four say? It’s okay if you don’t feel ready.”

Michael nodded energetically, still not able to talk. Gavin, too, readily agreed, as did Jack. Ryan took a minute to think about it, but eventually said, “Okay. I’m in.”

“Great, Joel, you can help me plan bright and early tomorrow morning,” Geoff announced. Joel nodded, his dark eyes hard and determined. “Now everyone get back to bed. I am not raiding another building with tired teammates.”

* * *

 

Ray drifted.

His eyes were closed wearily. He wished he could sleep. He felt light and insubstantial, and he had almost no energy left to move or even think. He was empty and lost. He drifted for a long time.

He bumped softly into something solid and ceased moving. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking in the glowing light of the realm he was in. It seemed he had knocked into a rock of some kind, jagged except for a smooth flat top. It was dark and actually a little squishy. By some miracle he had landed on the flat surface and was now lying on it. He continued lying there, drained and defeated, staring up at the shimmering sky above him. Sky really wasn’t the right word for it, but he had none other.

So this was the Astral Plane. It was actually quite beautiful, and if he wasn’t so doomed to die here – die or stop existing or whatever – he would appreciate it more. Except for several slabs of rock similar to his but in largely varying shapes and sizes, the plane was rather desolate. The air shimmered and sparkled in many colors, but mostly in soft pinks and purples. A silvery rope traversed the air a couple hundred paces away. In the far, far distance, he could see what looked like enormous glass spheres travelling slowly and smoothly across the sky. If he had to guess, he’d say that they were orbiting.

The Astral Plane was pretty fucking boring.

Ray was probably the absolute worst person to visit the Astral Plane, let alone be trapped there. He knew next to nothing about it. There was no real time there, but he laid there for what seemed like hours. He watched one particular sphere, one that contained a brightly burning light, travel almost entirely across his field of vision. Then he sighed and stood up. There was no use in just dawdling, was there? He couldn’t just give up without at least trying to escape. If there was one thing he was certain about, it was that there was _an_ exit. He got in here, so there had to be a way out.

He considered trying to reach the orbiting spheres up above him, but that seemed like opposite of what he wanted. He wanted to get back to Earth, not join celestial bodies. He looked around him carefully. The rope might be a good idea; it probably meant that there were other people projecting themselves voluntarily into the Astral Plane. At the same time, however, he had no idea which way to follow it. Either way might be good, leading either to a point of departure or a person who knew what they were doing, but he just wasn’t ready to commit to a direction just yet.

Down below him, directly opposite from the spheres above, was what looked like a wide expanse of a glittering off-white ocean. Everything here seemed to emit its own glow, but this actually shone. It almost hurt to look at. Ray immediately wanted to touch it. He stepped off the rock and used it to force himself to drift downwards.

What he discovered was that it was not an ocean at all. He landed solidly on it, finding it a smooth, slippery surface like glass or crystal. Now that he was on top of it, the glow did not seem so bad. It actually seemed to dull a little bit, but there was no way to tell if it actually did, or if it was an illusion of sorts. He decided to try and explore this surface more. If it was opposite those spheres above him, then surely this must be much less celestial – and therefore more earthly. He also decided that now would be a good time to learn how to float. He’d be able to explore much more quickly if he could control his direction in the air.

He hopped up lightly and crossed his legs in midair so he was sitting and floating. He closed his eyes and examined the sensations around him carefully. Truth be told, he did not feel much different from when he was just standing. He opened his eyes again and extended his legs. Then he leaned forward and sort of imagined gravity pulling him at a different direction than usual – that is, above him. He felt a gentle tug on his upper torso and drifted forward. He grinned. It wasn’t much different from drifting down through floors. With a whoop of victory, he flew forwards. He skimmed along the surface of the glowing crystal for probably a mile before he spotted something strange.

It was a sort of beacon, a pillar of yellowish light that erupted from the surface of the crystal for probably ten meters before dissipating into the astral air. Looking from the top down it would be very easy to miss, and it didn’t extend far enough into the plane to be noticed from afar either. But on level with it, it was almost impossible to miss. Ray hurried towards it, squinting against its brilliance. He hovered in front of it and touched down. Narrowing his eyes, he squatted down when he noticed something at the base of the pillar. It was about three feet thick, and he stuck his head straight into the pillar of light and looked down into the crystal.

It was like a porthole into the real world. Or rather, to wherever Miles was. Ray couldn’t technically tell it was Miles, but he saw a radiantly illuminated body silhouetted against a bed below him. Who else could it be but Miles? He pounded on the crystal surface with a fist. He made no noise against it, but he shouted anyway, shouted as loud as he could.

* * *

 

“… _Miles!_ ” The sound came softly at first with a preceding echo, rising in a gentle crescendo until his name was shouted in full. Miles jerked awake, his heart beating fast. That had sounded like Ray! His eyes searched the dark room he was in desperately, but he didn’t see a hint of anyone, let alone Ray. It was impossible; he must have been dreaming. Ray was gone. His astral projection was in some weird alternate dimension, or something, which meant that Ray was not waking up any time soon. If at all. Miles shivered at the thought.

He examined his new surroundings carefully. The first thing he noticed was that he was strapped down. He was on a bed covered in crisp white sheets that was inclined slightly so that he was propped up. Leather straps bound him down at his wrists, shins, and chest. He gave an experimental tug at his binds. Just as he expected, he was fettered tight. There was a small bedside table with a clipboard and a manila folder on top. Other than this and his bed, his room was completely empty. There was a window to his left, but heavy white curtains were drawn across it. He guessed that it was nighttime by the lack of light, but really it was hard to tell. He was facing the only door in the room.

 He gulped hard and tried to stay calm. He did not want to flicker; he did not want to alert anyone that he was awake.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, there wasn't much physical action, but the chapter was getting long. I've also got a few more things to plan. As such, the last chapter or two might take a little longer than usual. Not too much longer, but longer all the same.


	13. Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we start the final stretch, I just want to say a little something. I wrote these next two chapters and the Epilogue all at once, but unfortunately despite wanting to have 13 chapters, this last bit got really long. I severely underestimated the length of the climax.
> 
> But mainly I want to say thank you. I am not new to writing fanfiction, but I am new to writing AH fanfiction, and I am impressed both with myself and with you, my audience. I have not finished a great many stories, but this one is done, and for that I am amazed. But mostly I am amazed by its reception. Are there stories with more kudos? Yes. But the fact remains that I am a "new" author, and that I got this much attention, and completed it this quickly, is incredible.
> 
> Thank you so, so much for reading my story. And please, enjoy its ending.

Lindsay’s eyes snapped open, her heart suddenly racing. The lights had been turned on by a woman entering the room. Lindsay recognized her as the paramedic from last week. She couldn’t remember her name for the life of her.

“Good morning, Lindsay,” said the woman pleasantly.

“How did you know my name?” Lindsay asked nervously. She noticed for the first time that she was strapped down onto her bed. Her heart began to pound in her throat. “Why am I tied down? What are you going to do to me? What did you do with my friends?”

The woman seemed unfazed by Lindsay’s rapid-fire questions. She strolled over to a table next to the bed and picked up the clipboard lying on top of it. “I remember you from last week,” said the paramedic. “It wasn’t hard to look you up on your company’s website.” She measured Lindsay’s pulse against her watch and took out a sphygmomanometer, a blood pressure measurement device. “Your friends are fine, dear. We only want to keep you here for some testing.” She wrapped the inflatable cuff around Lindsay’s arm. “You’re strapped down for our safety and for yours. I don’t suppose you have any more friends coming?” she asked semi-jokingly, her dark eyes flitting up to meet Lindsay’s. She seemed to take Lindsay’s lack of response as a defeated, negative answer.

“What about Ray?” Lindsay asked as the woman wrote something on the clipboard.

“Ah, he is under special care,” the woman answered. “It appears that he is in a coma, but he is otherwise unharmed.” She placed the clipboard down and left the room without another word, ignoring Lindsay when she called after her.

Lindsay tugged at her straps, but she could hardly move them. She was scared and alone. God, Michael must be so worried! With a despondent glance at her curtained window, she chewed her lip. She desperately hoped that something was being done to rescue them, and soon.

* * *

 

The plan was as follows.

Doctor Lehrer did not seem to think that any more mutants were coming. Or at the very least, she seemed more focused on her current research and test subjects. Guards still crawled the building, as well as just a couple doctors in scrubs. She had hired more guards, so it seemed that she expected _some_ retaliation. However, she also seemed to be fairly confident that her guards could handle it. She had entered the new building in the morning, so it was clear that she was not spending her nights there – which meant that a nighttime heist would still be their best bet for rescue.

The building was in a more or less residential area, though there were not any houses nearby. It seemed to be a converted office rental space, not to mention that it seemed that it was a much smaller building with a few different additions. No guards were posted outside, but they were crawling all over the inside, and could easily see outside the windows. According to Caleb, there was one floor, but it was a still a large building, sprawling across its property. There were plenty of hallways, and the one wide open room still had some cubicles that added to the confusion of the interior. Around the perimeter of the building were corner offices, most of which were completely empty. Four of these contained their friends, and one of them had frosted windows, meaning that Caleb could not see inside of it very well. There were no security cameras.

Lindsay, Miles, and Kerry were more or less nearby each other, though in separate rooms. Ray was kept on the other side of the building with a special set-up, including an IV drip and heart monitor. He was also the only one of the four who wasn’t strapped down. There was also a woman in scrubs who seemed almost assigned to him. As Caleb checked in on the building throughout their planning session, he affirmed that Ray was the only one who had not woken up. The important thing was that he was still alive, but this was still worrying.

Though the five of them will enter the building together, they will be split into two teams. To actually get inside, there would ideally be some small creature that Ryan could order to unlock the door from the inside, but if not, Michael could just melt the handle. From there, Ryan and Jack were to break away from Geoff, Michael, and Gavin and go after Ray. The other three would release Lindsay, Miles, and Kerry, who should be able to walk out on their own, with or without assistance. Surprise was on their side, so hopefully they could all deal with the guards with little problem.

Geoff still wanted to search for the documents. Joel and Caleb were adamant against it. In fact, Joel had rescinded his support for the search entirely; he wanted to get his friends out and leave it at that. No more trouble. Out voted 2-to-1, Geoff was forced to agree. This was a rescue mission only, and they were to get in and out with their people, and ideally never have to deal with the doctor again.

Pencils were slammed down. Papers were shuffled. Joints were creaked and muscles were stretched. When night fell darkly, it was go time.

* * *

 

“Young man, quit that racket!”

Ray stopped shouting and pounding on the crystal surface. He looked over his shoulder, startled, to see an Indian man probably in his mid-to-late thirties floating several feet above him with his arms crossed. Ray stood to get a better look. The man had black hair swept neatly back and smooth brown skin, as well as a trim chin curtain and curled mustache. He was shirtless and wearing loose colorful pants. Most notably, however, was the silvery translucent rope sticking out of his back and fading off into the distance.

The man made a _tch_ noise and shook his head. “You’re going to disappear in a few moments probably, so the least you can do is stop _screaming_ so that I may work here.”

Ray’s stomach dropped. “Wh-what?”

The man rolled his green eyes. “Great, someone who doesn’t know they’re dead yet.”

“I’m not…”

“Hush, your denial is only making it harder. You’re in the Astral Plane. It’s the plane of memories and emotions, so sometimes soon after people die, especially if it’s a sudden death, their memories leave imprints and shadows on the plane. People on the other side there usually can’t hear you, so I wouldn’t try.”

Ray blinked slowly at the man. He didn’t quite know what to think, except that he wasn’t dead. “Okay, dude, for one, I’m not fucking dead. For two,” he added, holding up a finger when the man started to protest, “they might not be able to hear me, but I’m pretty sure my friend there just reacted to me.”

It was the man’s turn to look confused. “You are very stubborn. Why do you think you are not dead? And why do you think your friend reacted to you, not something else?” Then he mumbled something like, “I cannot believe I’m just letting him talk when he’s just going to disappear soon…” He seemed to have forgotten that he could keep some thoughts to himself.

“Alright, listen,” Ray said angrily, flaring his nostrils and jumping up to float in front of the man – an action that seemed to surprise him greatly. “I’m not dead, I’m an astral projection. Some telekinetic bitch cut my ‘spiritual thread’ or whatever the fuck she was talking about and threw me in here, where I’ve been floating for probably hours. I’ve just now found this little light here which seems to mark the location of my friend, and I don’t need you doubting my words because there is nothing in there right now for him to react to otherwise. Now, if you’re going to keep fucking criticizing me, then please fucking leave me alone.”

This made the man very thoughtful rather than offended or irritable. “Ghosts don’t really have a grasp on how to float. They usually stay really close to their point of formation… If you really have been around here for as long as you say, then I am inclined to believe you are not a ghost, but I _have_ seen a few linger for a while…” he mused, more to himself than to Ray. Then he said, louder and more directly, “May I?”

“May you _what?_ ”

“Ah, sorry. I wish to examine you.”

Ray narrowed his eyes. It couldn’t hurt, right? There was nothing this man could do to put him in a worse situation. “Alright, but no inappropriate touching.”

The man shrugged and floated around behind Ray. He drew his finger down Ray’s spine and paused right at his lower back. The pressure of the finger lifted, and Ray suddenly got a horrible feeling in his gut, like someone was putting pressure directly on his innards. He felt like curling up and possibly hurling, but he resisted. It definitely helped that there wasn’t anything to vomit. “Oh my, it _has_ been cut!” he heard the man remark. The uncomfortable pressure in his gut lifted.

The man floated around to be in front of Ray again. “Dear me, this is troubling. I’ve never met any projection with its rope cut before! I’ve only read reports, and even those were not very helpful. From the Earthly Plane, all one can usually tell is that the body is in a coma. My great-grandfather once entered the Astral Plane to try and find someone who was cut, but he never found her. It is surmised that cut projections are lost and have little to no hope of ever getting back to their bodies…”

Despite only being a consciousness, Ray started to feel nauseous. “So I’m… I’m trapped here forever?”

“Until your corporeal body dies,” the man said automatically. Noticing the look of fear and dread on Ray’s face, he quickly added, “Well, what is unusual here is that you found your friend. I would have guessed that a severed projection would never be able to see past the light produced by the crystal, but your friend seems to be acting as a sort of beacon. In fact, I was aiming to study this when I found you. Ah, forgive me, I do not think I’ve ever introduced myself. My name is Chetan Bhattacharya. I’m a medical researcher in India.”

“Yeah, you _sound_ like a doctor,” Ray said with a grimace.

“Does that… disturb you?” Chetan asked, purely curious.

“I haven’t exactly had a good experience with doctors and researchers as of late. I’m Ray.”

“Ray…” repeated the man. He seemed to roll the name over on his tongue. “Well, Ray, let’s see if we can get you home.”

* * *

 

Miles was alone and awake for a few hours. He spent it trying without avail to free any part of himself from his binds. Both wrists were shiny and bright rid from the effort as he twisted his arms around to try and wiggle free. He heard Ray one other time, which was enough to at least partially convince him that Ray was not entirely dead. Which is not much more comforting than otherwise, but it meant there was a ghost of a chance that he was okay anyway.

He jumped when the door slammed open. Two women, one in scrubs and one in a lab coat, entered his room with dark, reflective sunglasses. He realized that this was to protect them from his light powers. He also figured that the woman in the lab coat was Doctor Georgia Lehrer, which wasn’t a good sign for him. He had no idea who the shorter woman in scrubs was, however.

“Good morning, Miles,” said this woman, approaching him and taking his pulse and blood pressure. “I’m sure you know Doctor Lehrer here, but you may call me Rose. We’re going to be running some tests on you this morning to study how your light powers work.”

Miles was burning with questions, but whatever he said was ignored. He wanted to know how they knew his name, where his friends where, what happened with Ray, but his queries fell on deaf ears. Rose grasped his arm lightly and wiped it with anesthesia to numb the skin. Then, Lehrer took what looked like a razor and drew it across his skin. She peeled off a bit of his epidermis and carefully transferred it to a clear dish. She nodded at him and left the room. Miles grew pale and felt rather nauseous as he watched this happen. It was really very gross. Rose patted him on his hand.

“I’m supposed to run this experiment on you,” she said to him in a calm, steady voice. “Doctor Lehrer has a hypothesis that your ability is a form of bioluminescence, and she suspects that it might be controlled by electric impulses.” She pulled out a thick wad of cloth and held it in front of Miles’s mouth. “You might want to bite down on this.”

* * *

 

The beacon in the Astral Plane began to pulsate dramatically. Chetan had been trying to teach Ray what he knew about astral travel and the crystal when they had both been startled by the sudden change in light. The pillar of light which marked the location of Miles extended rapidly out into the Astral Plane, its height never staying at one spot for more than a second. It stretched and shortened erratically, sometimes reaching beyond what the eye could see and sometimes barely breaching the edge of the crystal’s glow.

“What’s happening?” Chetan asked, alarmed, but Ray was already on the move. He threw himself down towards the crystal and shoved his head in the middle of the beacon, looking down into his window to the Earthly Plane. What he saw clearly displeased him, as he slammed his hands down on the crystal. “What’s happening?” Chetan asked again, floating down to stand next to Ray.

“Something’s wrong,” Ray said, breathless. He shuffled back and motioned for Chetan to look. “That body of light is my friend, and something’s wrong.” He began dry-washing his hands worriedly. “I can’t see what’s going on.”

Chetan was silent as he examined the scene under him. Then, he reported, “There’s someone else in there with your friend. He is convulsing in a manner I would associate with electric shock.”

“ _What!_ ” Chetan jerked away from the light to look at Ray. Ray brutally shoved Chetan away and looked again down into the crystal. Chetan rolled and began floating again, observing Ray with interest. “ _Miles!_ Gahhhh, I wish I could fucking _help him!_ ” Ray twisted around to stare hard at the Indian man beside him. “ _Get me back now!_ ”

* * *

 

“Hurry up, man.”

“Shut up, I’m trying!”

“Try harder.”

“Okay, _you_ try sensing for creatures.”

“Guys, should I just melt the door?”

“No, no, wait, look there.”

A rat poked its nose around the corner of the building. With nearly incessant squeaking, it scampered over to where the five of them were crouching behind a couple trees and scrabbled up Ryan’s pant leg to perch on his knee.

<What do you require of me, Master?>

“You see that building right there?” Ryan said in a low voice, pointing at the place they were trying to break into. “The one you just came from? I need you to unlock the front door for us.”

<Certainly, Master.> With a flick of its naked tail, the rat leaped off of Ryan’s knee and scurried off into the distance. Geoff suddenly shook with a brief shiver.

“Did it have to be a rat?” he asked.

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Rats are a lot smarter than mice. Would you rather I work with a snake? I sense a couple garters around.”

Geoff shivered again and made an _eeuh_ sound. “No thanks. Rats are good. They’re fine. It’s taking a long time.”

Ryan sighed and ignored the gent. Michael and Gavin looked at each other and shrugged. Jack merely shook his head, his arms crossed as he leaned against his tree. After what seemed like ages but was in actuality probably only five minutes, Ryan heard a little squeak at his feet. <The job is complete, Master! The door is unlocked!>

“Uh, thanks,” Ryan told it. He gently patted it on the head with a finger, and it hurried off, disappearing into the grass. Ryan stood back up. “The door is unlocked, it’s go time.”

“Be careful, everyone,” said Caleb over the radio. “Once you split up, I can’t keep an eye on both groups. I’ll be switching back and forth, but there are a lot of guards. I see a couple doctors, but they are harmless. Doctor Lehrer is not in the building. Go… _now._ ”

On Caleb’s cue, the five Achievement Hunters dashed across the small open space between the trees and the front door. It was fairly shadowy, but light from a lamppost on the road several paces away bled a little into the property, and two small lights were angled over the door. Gavin got there first and pushed the door open easily and quickly. He ducked inside and held the door open, his teammates hot on his heels. They found themselves in a small reception area and a door leading to the rest of the building opposite them. There were three armchairs and a coffee table next to them as well as a receptionist’s desk set into the wall next to the second door. A guard had been lounging lazily in one of the armchairs with his boots propped up on the table, but now he jumped up.

“ **Leave** ,” Jack ordered, stepping back against the wall and pointing at the front door. The guard shivered and stilled for a moment before turning and marching out the door. Jack shut it behind him and turned and smiled nervously at his co-workers. Michael gave him a thumbs up and Geoff motioned that they should continue. They wanted to keep talking to a minimum.

“When you enter the next room, there will be two guards on your right. They’re walking away, so if you move quickly, you can surprise them,” reported Caleb. Geoff pointed at Michael and Gavin and then pointed at the door. The two lads nodded, and as quietly as they could they dashed over to the second door and eased it open. They peeked around the frame, and then Gavin slid out and opened his mouth. Michael covered his ears preemptively as Gavin screeched almost imperceptively. The two guards stumbled as their inner ear became unbalanced. Michael ran forward and wrapped his hands around their mouths and dragged them heavily to the floor. Jack was not far behind Michael, and stepped up to them and ordered them to **sleep** before they could make any noise.

This room was a large room, but was filled with cubicles. Which meant that if they ducked, they would not be seen. From where they entered, there were only two directions to go. Jack turned around and headed to the left of the door, grabbing Ryan by the arm as he passed him. Geoff nodded at the other two gents and went right with Team Nice Dynamite. Caleb told them that he would be following the three of them for now.

Ryan and Jack turned the corner and snuck along the edge of the cubicles. They knew where to go, thanks to Caleb’s careful observance of the place, but the building was still crawling with guards. Luckily, however, they didn’t see anyone as they hurried towards the next door. They passed three empty offices and pushed their way through a set of double doors into a new section of the building. This section was the most recent and modern addition, though it still felt old. A wide hallway extended in front of them for about thirty feet before splitting into two. Team Same Voice carefully made their way down this hallway, preparing to turn left. Both hallways wrapped around a conference room, but the hall to the right also connected to the other addition. It also didn’t hurt that Ray’s room is in the far corner.

Jack and Ryan turned left and then right. They slowed cautiously. Shouldn’t they have run into a guard by now? They shared glances, thinking the same thing. “Where are they?” Jack whispered.

As if on cue, a man turned the corner ahead of them. He paused, startled, before shouting. “Hey! What are you doing in here?!” They turned and started to run the other way, but skidded to a halt when two more guards appeared around that corner. “Hey, stop!”

“ **Step aside!** ” Jack ordered. The two guards automatically moved away from each other, but as they ran by, one of them recovered. He grabbed Jack by the collar and yanked him backwards. The other guard blinked a couple times, still shaking off the persuasion. With a strangled yell, Jack stumbled to the floor. Ryan tried to change direction too quickly and staggered. He regained his balance just as the other guard recovered. He also saw the guard at the end of the hall apparently on the phone.

“Doctor, we’ve got intruders,” he heard the guard say.

“Aw, fuck,” Ryan muttered. He aimed a punch at the guard nearest him, who happened to be the newly-recovered one. His fist was easily deflected by the guard’s hand, forcing his fist out to the side and leaving his core open. The guard swung with his other hand and smacked Ryan in the chest, sending him backwards. In his peripheral vision he saw Jack attempt to recover, standing and jumping back to avoid the guard’s gun as he swung it for a melee attack. Jack cried for him to stop, but he seemed to have lost his grasp on his persuasive abilities. Too quickly for Ryan to shout warning, the guard at the end of the hall rapidly approached, lifted his taser, and pulled the trigger. The probes hit Jack in the back, and the man crumpled, shaking horribly.

“Jack, no!” Ryan raised his hands as his guard threw another punch at him. He blocked one fist but received a kick to the gut for his troubles. The other two guards nudged Jack aside with their feet. His guard grabbed one of his arms as he flailed, unbalanced, and twisted it hard. Ryan cried out and twisted with it, trying to ease the pain. The guard took this opportunity to slam him face first against the wall, pushing his cheek into the cool material. He tasted blood – he had bit the inside of his cheek. There was a _chik_ and a click as cold metal handcuffs were tightened around his wrists.

“You and your friend are coming with us,” said the guard gruffly. Ryan could see Jack crumpled against the wall nearby, the other guards rearranging him and cuffing him as well. With Jack unconscious, there was no way to persuade these guys to let them go. Ryan struggled against the guard's grip, but the guard smashed his head into the wall again and shoved his weight against him. His radio was loud in his ear as Matt, Joel, and Burnie were shouting, wondering what was going on. He heard Caleb try to calm them down, but the truth was not helpful. Ryan cast mentally about for anything, any creature that could possibly come to his aid. Rats, snakes, and spiders did not lend to assistance very well. He was frightened. Scared. Petrified. They were here to rescue Ray and the others and they were going to get captured as well. He had no idea what would happen, what kind of cruel experiments would be performed on him and Jack. He couldn’t let this happen. Not to him, and definitely not to Jack.

His mind met that of a tiger’s at the zoo, linking their minds and causing a flow of information to spring forth like a river suddenly breaking through a blockage. A ton of panicked information gushed from Ryan down this mental river. This caused the tiger, who had been napping in his enclosure, to lift his head. His brain translated the tiger’s words for him.

<Whoa, whoa, calm down there, boss.>

<I can’t be calm! I’m about to lose everything! Please, you have to help me!>

The tiger laid his head down lazily again. <Boss, seriously. Relax. I’ll give you some of my strength. I don’t need it right now anyway.>

Through the mental channel, pure feline energy began surging. It coursed through Ryan’s mind and entered his bloodstream. His heart rammed against his chest like a kid with his first drum set. He felt stronger, adrenaline and borrowed power rushing through his veins. With a terrific roar to rival that of a tiger’s, he ripped his handcuffs apart at the chain and pushed back from the wall hard enough to send the guard stumbling back.

The two other guards aimed their guns at him, shouting at him to stand down. Blood roared in his ears and heat popped at his eyes. As he leaped at the nearest guard, a searing hot flash burned behind his eyes as his pupils dilated far more than they were supposed to. His irises felt like they were ripping apart. Color seemed to de-saturate, and the whole place seemed to become brighter. The channel with the tiger was still open.

He grabbed the guard and spun, throwing him by the head into the second one. The guard who had been holding him recovered and now aimed his taser at Ryan. With a mighty bound, Ryan crashed into him, hand on the guard’s face as he smashed his head into the ground hard enough to dent his helmet. That guard was not getting up any time soon. For good measure, Ryan strode quickly over to the last guards, picked their heads up, and dented their helmets against the ground as well.

Ryan moved to try and get to Jack, but he seemed to forget how normal legs worked. He faltered and fell to his knees. He clutched his head, his fingers entwining with his hair, as his head began to pound. The channel was still open.

< _Stop! STOP!_ > He cried to the tiger. < _Too much! GAHHH!_ >

<Whatever, boss.> The channel finally closed.

It took a few moments for the effect of the tiger’s strength to begin to ebb. When Ryan could remember how to use human legs, he jumped up lightly and rushed over to Jack, picking the bearded man up and slinging him effortlessly over his shoulder. Ryan figured he had maybe ten minutes or less before the effects of the tiger wore completely off.  The doctor was likely on her way. Ryan was getting Ray and getting him and Jack the fuck out of there.

“Ryan! Jack! What’s your status?!” Burnie demanded.

“I’m alright,” Ryan replied, slightly breathless as he jogged down the hallway towards the door he knew to be Ray’s. Christ, is that what he sounded like? His voice sounded like Batman. “We met guards; they’ve been taken care of. Jack’s out cold, but I’ve got him. I think one of the guards alerted the doctor; she’s probably on her way here now.” The chains on his handcuffs tinkled gently as he ran.

“Fuck,” he heard Matt whisper.

“Get Ray and get out,” Joel said.

“That’s the plan.”

He reached the door and flung it open. He pulled a bit too hard – the door was nearly ripped off the hinges, and he left it hanging there as a woman in scrubs shrieked in surprise. Ignoring her, with a man just as big as him slung unconscious over his shoulder, he marched over to the bed in the room. Ray looked small and weak against the white sheets, his arms on top of the covers and by his sides. Was he always this skinny? As he carefully took out his IV drip with one hand, the woman began to react.

“What are you doing? You can’t move him!” She ran up to him and began to pull on his shirt. “He is in a _coma_ , he needs to stay here!”

Ryan turned and grabbed her wrist. She gasped as he leaned in close and growled. “I’m taking my friend, and you’re not stopping me.” She yanked her wrist away and backed up quickly, feeling for the wall behind her. As he watched her retreat, he noticed the folding chair behind her and got an idea. “Give me your chair,” he ordered. She glanced behind her and hastily shoved the chair in his direction. He gently placed Jack on the floor, propped him against the wall, and picked up the chair. With a snarl he chucked it as hard as he could at the nearest window. Luckily, since this was supposed to be an office building, the windows were large and broad. The window shattered.

Ryan cried out as heat popped behind his eyes again. His hands flew to his eyes, rubbing them as his pupils returned to normal. He was running out of time. Already his eyes wished to stay shut with exhaustion. He shook his head fiercely and picked up Jack again. He picked Ray’s glasses up off the bedside table carefully and hooked them over his shirt collar. He reached over and slung Ray over his free shoulder, and headed for the window. The glass had not shattered as cleanly as he would have liked, but a few well-placed kicks cleared away the dangerous bits. Then he took a few steps back and dashed forward. Awkwardly but cleanly, he jumped through the window and landed solidly on the grass on the other side. Glass glittered amongst the grass, twinkling as brightly as the stars above him.

He took off running. He dashed into the trees and stopped when he began to stagger. He set the limp bodies of his friends down and said between gasps into the radio, “I’m out, now if someone could come help me, that’d be great.” Then he sunk to the ground with a sigh and promptly passed the fuck out.

* * *

  


	14. Sleep (and Epilogue)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a little bit of time skipping, but you should be able to follow this easily.

The crystal rippled and pitched beneath Ray’s hands like a pond underneath a hovering helicopter. He was on his knees, pressing down hard on the crystal in the center of the beacon. He had been there for who knows how long, as per Chetan’s instructions. The researcher had never done this himself, but had studied old documents which suggested that the crystal was a divide between the Astral and Earthly Planes. As such, Ray should be able to cross this divide, though Chetan had been worried that since he was a severed projection, it might not be possible.

“Keep trying!” Chetan encouraged. “The crystal is moving, so it _must_ be working!”

Ray didn’t entirely believe him, but he also didn’t exactly have any other options. His hair was lifted off his forehead in a strong breeze, his shirt fluttering around him. He needed to get back. He needed to return to his body. He needed to help Miles, help his friends. With a wordless, extended shout, he pushed down on the crystal harder.

The light around him increased tenfold. He could no longer see anything but bright, blinding light. His hands slowly began to sink into the crystal, and he nearly pulled back. It was incredibly and increasingly painful; it felt like the crystal was pinching all of his nerve endings and crushing his hands. He sunk lower. His arms felt like they were in a vice grip. He heard Chetan whoop in excitement, and he didn’t really feel like notifying the man of how much _holy fucking pain_ he was in. This was their first real victory in the Astral Plane anyway. If anything, _something_ was happening, and that was enough to drive Ray stubbornly forward. He pushed harder.

His hands stopped pressing against any surface. He reached down, reached as far as his arms could extend. His squeezed his eyes shut as his face came in contact with the undulating, surging crystal. Strangely enough, the pain seemed to dull. The path seemed easier. As his ears passed through the crystal, it felt like someone had pressed pillows to them. He reached and reached.

His body tipped forward and suddenly he was freefalling. He tumbled through pitch blackness, head over heels and becoming very, very dizzy. He opened his eyes, trying to right himself. In the distance he saw what looked like a star. He reached for it, hand outstretched, feeling his arm pull in its socket. The star flickered terrifyingly dim for a second, and then shone as bright as the beacon. Ray felt his hand wrap around something warm, and suddenly he stopped falling. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. He was in a white room that was most definitely not in the Astral Plane. He stood, grinning. He was back.

Miles was asleep on a white bed, held down by leather straps. A man in scrubs dozed in a folding chair next to the door. Ray walked over to the bed and looked down at his friend. It looked like Miles’s sleep was not very restful. He was pale, and his hair was a mess, sticking almost straight up. He twitched occasionally, as if experiencing a bad dream, and had an expression of worry etched on his face. He was sleeping very fitfully.

“Miles,” Ray whispered. He reached out to gently shake his friend awake. His hand passed through his friend’s arm, and he frowned. He tried several more times to make contact, but every effort had the same incorporeal results. He examined his hand and nearly cried out. Before, as a projection, he hadn’t been able to see through himself, but now he could very clearly see the outline of the bed through his skin. “Miles,” he said again, this time louder. With a glance at the man in scrubs, he nearly shouted, “Miles!”

Miles jolted awake, his eyes roving. “Ray?” he whispered as quietly as he could as to not wake the man in scrubs.

“Miles, I’m here! I’m back!”

It felt like he was shouting through thick cotton. Miles craned his neck, but he looked right through Ray. “I can… I can sort of hear you, but it’s hard to understand you.”

Ray pulled at his hair. Turns out, he was still in a bad situation. Miles seemed rather happy about it, though. He was beaming. “You’re still alive!” he whispered. “I’m so glad. We’ll figure this out, Ray. We’ll get you back to normal.”

* * *

 

Geoff, Michael, and Gavin hurried down the hallway to the right in half-crouches. Caleb alerted them to a guard who was about to turn the corner and backtracked quickly. They ducked inside a cubicle and squeezed against the fake wall, holding their breaths. Thirty seconds passed, and Caleb gave them the okay to continue. They rounded the corner. The set of double doors that led to the third section of the building were set into this right-hand wall, framed on either side by offices. At the end of this hall, facing them, was the office with the frosted window.

“Guys, there’s the office,” Geoff whispered, causing Michael and Gavin to glance back at him. “With the frosted windows. I want to…”

“No, Geoff,” Joel said quickly over the radio. “We’re here for rescue, not search. It might be empty anyway. Stick to the plan.”

Geoff sighed and agreed. They stopped in front of the double doors and Gavin pushed them open just as Caleb suddenly said, “Wait, there’s guards on the other side!” Gavin opened the doors to reveal two guards marching patrol. They turned to face the intruders as Gavin shrieked loudly in surprise. Geoff could _see_ the sound waves as they powerfully exploded forward. Before the guards could react, they were thrown backwards and knocked silly, their heads reeling and their ears ringing. Team Nice Dynamite dashed forward and took their tasers from them, stepping back and pulling the triggers. The guards shook and fell completely unconscious.

“Nice job, Gav,” Geoff said, clapping the lad on the shoulder. Gavin grinned and readjusted his earpiece. They jogged to catch up to Michael, who had gone on ahead. Unlike the other section, this addition did not have a short hallway. The double doors, much like on the other side, opened to a blank wall that extended to the left and right. The right dead ended, but the left hooked into another T shape. They took this path.

The right hallway at the second turn led to Miles’s room, a corner office at the end of the hallway. Lindsay and Kerry were located to the left, both in offices across from one another. They were going for Lindsay first, as per Michael’s insistence. Caleb warned them that there was a guard stationed in front of each occupied room. Michael didn’t care; he was so, so close to Lindsay, so close to getting her back. As he slowed and prepared to jump around the corner, he mused briefly on how surreal this was. Maybe a couple times, mostly earlier in their relationship, he had dreamed of one of them requiring rescue from the other. Now it was actually happening, and he decided he much preferred that it had remained a fantasy. Was he scared? Fuck yeah, he was. It’s not nearly as glorious as he had imagined. He was a young man sweating acid. Yeah, glorious. With a wordless cry, he rounded the corner as fast as he could.

“What the fuck?” he heard one of the guards mutter. He threw himself at one of them, pressing his hands to the guard’s helmet. He didn’t bother with the second one; he knew his friends were right behind him. The guard began to scream as his helmet melted against Michael’s palms. Behind him he heard Gavin disorient the guard in front of Miles’s room and take him out, and Geoff did a fantastic tackle to knock the second guard to the floor. With ease, both guards’ tasers were stolen and used against their owners.

“Michael, stop it!” Geoff said as his guard shook with electricity.

“You little bitch,” Michael hissed, ignoring his boss. “You fucking bitch!”

“Michael!” Geoff whispered fiercely, hooking both arms under Michael’s armpits and hoisting him backwards. “He’s not your enemy; he’s just a man doing his job!” He threw Michael unceremoniously into the wall and crouched down to the now-unconscious man. He pulled off the helmet with a sickening ripping noise and quickly put both hands on the man’s face. Michael turned away, shamefully hiding his face against the wall. Over the radio they heard Ryan go “Aw, fuck,” and then, “Jack, no!”

“Geoff! Michael! Is that you?” cried a voice from behind one of the doors. He perked back up as the door slammed open, and a woman in scrubs stood wide-eyed at the entrance.

“Who—what are you doing here!?” shouted the woman.

“Get out of my way,” Michael demanded, marching forward and brutally shoving her into the doorframe as he passed her. Gavin by now had caught up to them and entered the room as well. Lindsay was lying on a bed with dark circles under her eyes and the worst bedhead Michael had seen in a while. A smile broke on the couple’s faces.

“You came for me!” Lindsay said happily as Michael rushed to her bed. He wanted desperately to kiss her, but he knew, as riled up as he was, that he was likely to burn her. Instead he worked on the straps holding her down. Gavin, too, began fumbling with them. Michael found it faster to just melt them, so by the time Gavin had released her left wrist, Michael had released her torso, right wrist, and right leg. Gavin quickly figured out her left leg as Michael wiped his palms on the edge of the bed. Lindsay sat up and they embraced.

Geoff stood up and looked upon the scene fondly. They were doing well. Well, Ryan and Jack had run into some trouble, but they seemed to be handling it. Geoff cautiously glanced down the hallway, empty except for the unconscious bodies of guards. An idea dawned on him. With another look at Michael, Lindsay, and Gavin, he silently edged away from the door. When he was out of eyesight, he turned on his heel and ran as quietly as he could.

He returned to the room with the cubicles and turned right, heading for the room with the frosted window. A guard rounded the corner and Geoff dived feet first, purposely entangling his legs in the guard’s. The guard tumbled hard, and Geoff rolled, grabbing his taser and straddling him, pulling the trigger and not even waiting for the guard to pass out before getting up. He tried the handle of the door with the frosted window and found it unlocked. He entered and carefully shut it before anyone had noticed he was gone.

“Geoff? Where’d you go?” Gavin asked over the radio.

“Don’t worry about me, go get Miles and Kerry,” he said.

“You’re not in that office, are you?”

Geoff didn’t reply, but heard Gavin sigh. He heard glass shatter over the radio, and a snarl that he guessed came from Ryan. This was affirmed as Ryan reported his situation. Geoff hurried over to the only desk in the otherwise windowless room. It was a sadly empty desk, clearly only recently moved into. He yanked open a drawer and found it full of files. He grinned.

“Geoff, is that you in that office?” Caleb asked. “You know I can’t see well in there! The doctor’s likely on her way, you need to get out!”

“Damnit, Geoff!” Joel shouted, making him wince. “We told you not to go after the files!”

“I _have_ to know what she fuckin’ wants us for,” Geoff said. “Now shut up, you’re distracting me.”

“You don’t _have_ to know!”

He heard a sigh. “I’ll go get him,” Michael said. “We’ve got Lindsay and Kerry, they and Gavin can go get Miles.”

Geoff was about to respond when the door slammed open. He barely had enough time to toggle his indestructibility when he was picked up, turned around, and smashed into the wall. The file he was holding fluttered to the ground. The earpiece was ripped off his face and crushed. In the doorway he was now facing stood Doctor Lehrer with her hand outstretched and a look of fury and confusion.

“There’s more of you!” she exclaimed. “Why can’t you just leave me and my research alone?”

“I’ll leave you alone when you leave _us_ alone,” he spat. “What are you hoping to gain from capturing us and testing on us?”

“A cure,” she hissed. “I want a cure. The vaccines are fine, but they wear off later in life. People _adapt_ to it, and they don’t work anymore.”

The wall cracked behind Geoff, and he realized just how hard he was being pushed into it. “What the fuck are you curing? There’s nothing to cure!”

“There’s everything to cure,” the doctor said quietly.

The door slammed open again. “Geoff!” Michael cried. The doctor flung her free hand out behind her, her ferocious glare staring down her arm. Michael was thrown backwards into the cubicle behind him and the door was shut. He leaped up and rattled the handle, but the door was forced to stay closed. As the doctor returned her attention to Geoff, a soft sizzling sound was heard. The doctor didn’t appear to notice this, and Geoff didn’t really feel like alerting her.

“We’re not broken,” he said. “We’re not something to cure, because we aren’t sick. You can’t fix what isn’t fucking _broken!_ ”

“You think we’re not broken?” Georgia Lehrer asked, her voice soft. The door creaked open behind her, but she still didn’t notice it. “We’re monsters. We bring nothing but pain to those around us.”

“How can you think that?” Geoff asked, his voice cracking.

This seemed to make Doctor Lehrer angry. “How can I _think_ that!? I know from experience!” Michael was standing, wide eyed and silent, in the doorway, listening to the doctor. “I hurt the people I loved. I nearly killed them! It took me too long to learn to control my telekinesis, and I wanted nothing more – no, I _still_ want nothing more than to be a normal human being, instead of what I am. A _monster_.” She squeezed her eyes shut, and a tear even leaked out. “How could you wish this upon other children? Other people? I just want to ease their pain.”

Geoff wanted to shout, yell at Michael and order him to attack her. But at the moment he wasn’t sure if the lad would respond to him, and that would spell certain defeat for them. Michael was frozen with indecision, like he almost agreed with the doctor. Geoff knew he wouldn’t switch sides – the boy’s loyalty was too strong. But it might cause him to hesitate, and neither of them could afford that. It made him feel like a horrible person, watching Michael muse over the doctor’s words. His fingers curled against the wall, his joints stiff with indestructibility. He closed his eyes and hoped to God that someone else was on their way.

* * *

 

Gavin released Kerry and ushered him quickly out of the room. Michael had gone after Geoff, and it was up to him to lead their friends to freedom. He nearly trembled with the excitement of the situation. He passed by a man in scrubs and with night vision gear on the floor. The night vision goggles had not saved his inner ear from going out of whack thanks to Gavin’s powers, unfortunately. Now there was just Miles to rescue.

The trio ran down the hallway and carefully stepped over the unconscious guard. Gavin peeked inside the room and spotted a dozing man in scrubs. Miles also appeared to be awake and searching the room for something. When his eyes passed over the window, he saw Gavin and beamed, his tense face relaxing. Rescue had come.

Gavin eased the door open and edged past the man in scrubs. The man was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, but they had slipped down his nose to reveal that yes, his eyes were closed. Lindsay followed suit, but Kerry stayed outside the room, keeping an eye on the hallway. Since they had each unfastened the straps before, Lindsay and Gavin released Miles with ease.

“I’m – I’m so glad you came for us,” whispered Miles, his eyes sparkling as Gavin helped him off the bed. He seemed the worst for wear of the three captives, preferring to lean on someone. “You’ve got to help Ray, where is his body?”

Gavin shrugged with his free shoulder and whispered back, “Jack and Ryan were supposed to get him. Ryan said they made it out. Dunno what we’re gonna do about him, though.” He passed Miles off to Kerry in the hallway and gently shut the door.

“He’s here,” Miles said, his voice still quiet, as they made their way down the hallway with the eventual goal of getting the fuck out of there.

“What? What do you bloody mean by that?”

Lindsay looked pained. “He can’t be here, he… I don’t know what the fuck happened to him, but he can’t…”

“He is!” Miles insisted. “I can sort of hear him. It’s hard but… I think he got out of wherever he was, but I think he’s still in trouble.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Gavin told him. They were approaching the double doors.

“ _…Gavin!_ ” The Brit jumped as a gentle crescendoing echo of a familiar voice sounded right next to his ear.

“Ray?” He couldn’t believe it. Was he hearing things?

“ _…self … transparent… can’t see… dark around…_ ”

The four of them stopped, staring at each other in dumbfounded disbelief. Well, except for Miles, who had an _I told you so_ look on his face. But where was this elusive brown man? Even Lindsay couldn’t see him. But they were hearing him, as poorly as they were, so they just had to trust that he was with them. They didn’t have much time to ponder this, however. The headset crackled in Gavin’s ear.

“Gavin, Geoff is in a pinch with the doctor at her office and Michael’s not responding – you need to go!” Caleb ordered.

“Caleb, where’s Ray’s body?” Gavin asked suddenly.

“Are you serious? You need to go!”

“Caleb, please, it’s important.”

Caleb sighed. “Ryan got him out, they’re all passed out somewhere in the trees. Matt and Burnie have gone to get them. Now fucking _go!_ ”

“Alright, alright,” Gavin muttered. He turned to his companions. “Kerry, I want you to make the next hallway as dark as you can possibly make it, and wait here.” Kerry nodded, and when Gavin saw the other side of the double doors go dark, he burst through them.

* * *

 

“Of course I don’t wish this upon other kids,” Geoff said. “But what you’re trying to do is changing their very being!”

“It’s for the best!” the doctor cried. She flung her hand out, and Geoff felt the wall give a little. “There’s no other way!”

“There _has_ to be!” Geoff was shouting now. “There _is_ another way, and it doesn’t involve drugs! With _education_ and _training_ , we can avoid terrible accidents!”

Doctor Lehrer actually chuckled, her laughter mirthless. “How naïve. How stubbornly ignorant. I see now that I can’t convince you. Fools will not change their minds.” She looked prepared to do something, and Geoff flinched as the room went dark.

“ _Move, you bloody idiot!_ ” No way. No fucking way. He heard Michael cry out, and heard a shrill scream like a banshee. He dropped to the ground and tried to stand back up, but his head was reeling. He heard the doctor stumble and fall as well. He felt a hand on his arm, and he reflexively tried to pull back. It took him a moment to realize it was Gavin. As he was yanked towards what he presumed was the exit, he flung out his hand in search of the desk. He grabbed for a folder blindly and by some miracle found one. It crinkled in his fist, but he had it. “Come _on_ Geoff, _run!_ ” Gavin cried, infuriated. He felt a breeze and realized they just passed through the door. The Brit grabbed Michael and started half running, half dragging them down the hallway. Gavin called out to Kerry but was cut short as the three of them were thrown to the ground.

“Burnie,” Gavin whispered, “a little help? I know you’re nearby.”

Footsteps. The doctor was approaching. Geoff lost contact with the ground as he was lifted up.

“You’re not getting away,” Doctor Lehrer hissed.

The shadows began to fade. He could see the silhouette of the doctor clearly. He also saw that he was the only one in the air. He slipped lower, and a look of confusion fluttered across the doctor’s face. Her telekinetic grip on him weakened, not completely vanishing, but it was no longer strong enough to hold him off the ground.

“You… One of you is…” she muttered in shock. She never completed her sentence. Her head was yanked back by her hair, and Lindsay smashed her head into the ground, knocking the doctor clean out.

She clapped her hands together as though to brush dust off of her palms and smirked. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.” As the darkness had faded, and before her invisibility had failed too much to be useful, she had snuck around the doctor. Michael was grinning from ear to ear as he stood back up. He ran over to her and embraced her as the double doors opened and Mile and Kerry rejoined the group.

“You fucking rule,” he murmured into her ear.

“It’s time to go, lovebirds,” Geoff said, motioning to the group and heading quickly for the front doors. They exited the building unchallenged and were welcomed by Burnie. He led the group towards the trees, where Joel and Caleb had joined up with Matt and their three unconscious friends, anxiously waiting. The cool night air was a relief after the stress of the night, but finally their mission was over. Well, almost, Geoff supposed. They still had to take care of Ray. But the point was that they were out. They were out.

* * *

 

Ray hadn’t noticed it in the small room Miles had been kept in, but it became apparent when they left that he couldn’t see very far. About twenty feet away from Miles, the world faded into a dark shroud of shadows. It chilled Ray to the core, and he stuck as close as he could to his friend.

“You’re not making any sense,” Gavin was saying to Miles. Ray sighed.

“Gavin!” he shouted as loud as he could. He couldn’t be sure it would work, but thankfully the Brit reacted to him.

“Ray?” Gavin’s eyes were wide as they searched the hallway for some sign of his friend.”

“I can barely see myself!” Ray yelled. “I’m transparent, and I can’t see very far! It’s all dark around us!” He had no clue how much of his words were heard. He had figured out through attempting to communicate with Miles that a small fraction was understood. Miles looked satisfied, though, and had a rather uppity look on his face. After a short pause, Gavin asked for Ray’s body and then ordered Kerry to activate his shadow powers.

Ray desperately wanted to follow Gavin as the Brit opened the double doors, but he didn’t dare leave Miles’s side. Not to mention that the darkness would have made it impossible to see anyway. So instead he was forced to wait with the other captives anxiously to hear results.

When the darkness began to fade, Lindsay took her leave. Kerry remarked that he was losing his effectiveness, and she had figured out that it meant that Burnie was casting his nullification power over the building. Ray glanced at his hand and gasped. He felt himself fading, watched himself become more and more transparent. He trembled, unable to do anything about it. At a certain point, this increasing transparency stopped, but Ray was terrified. He thanked the powers that be that Burnie could not nullify abilities fully without contact. If he disappeared, he had the feeling he wouldn’t return to his body. Not as a severed projection. He definitely did not want to test this theory.

When they heard Lindsay speak, they knew the battle was over. As they exited the building, Ray noticed that Geoff still had a file. He smiled despite his situation. No one else would be happy about it, but Ray was glad Geoff had stubbornly still grabbed for at least some documents. Burnie led the group into the woods to where he had left Matt. Caleb and Joel were there, the three of them hovering over Jack, Ryan, and Ray’s body. They looked just about ready to start lugging these chumps to the cars.

“Thank fucking Christ, you guys got out,” Matt said, standing up from where he was bending over Ryan, trying to wake the man up. Ryan was just asleep, but he was stubbornly so, and refused to wake up. “We need to – _Geoff, are you serious?_ ” Geoff coughed once and awkwardly shuffled his hands behind him, shoving the documents out of sight too slowly. Matt shook his head, but it was too late now. What was he going to do, make Geoff go back in there and put them back?

“We need to get away now, before the doctor wakes up,” Geoff said.

“Wait, but what about Ray?” asked Gavin, glancing at his friend’s body.

“We can figure it out later, buddy.”

“But he’s here now. His projection, I mean.”

Geoff hesitated, giving Gavin a strange, slightly befuddled look. He glanced at Miles, Kerry, and Lindsay, who were standing behind him. They nodded eagerly in agreement. “What do you mean? I don’t see him.”

“That’s the problem,” Miles said. “We’ve all heard him, but there’s something wrong. He’s back from wherever he was, but he’s still cut off from his body.”

“Well, what if I just nullify his ability completely?” Burnie suggested. “That might return…”

“ _NO!_ ”

Without waiting to see if he was heard or not, Ray made a beeline for his body. He jumped the last few feet, arms outstretched. It was all or nothing. If this didn’t work, nothing would. He dove straight into his body and sunk into cool darkness. His head flared up in pain; his brain felt like it was burning. It was like he was trying to play that game where he had to form a specific position to fit through a hole in the wall. He twisted and thrashed in the darkness, and he felt something take hold. His body shuddered, his corporeal muscles beginning to spasm.

The touch on his arm was quite a shock to the system. After being unable to feel anything except pressure for so long, he was suddenly feeling the warmth of a hand, the roughness of a palm, and the gentle sensation of fingers. A heat like liquid sunlight, hot but pleasant, expanded from this touch. It buzzed like a phone on vibrate and travelled up his arm. It filled his entire being, the liquid heat pooling at his lower back. He felt like he was being wrapped in a cocoon of warm, fluffy blankets. He settled into his body and wriggled under the hand’s grip on his arm. Slowly, the sensations faded, and he was sad to feel it go.

Ray opened his eyes.

Geoff’s face hovered above him in a blur. He squinted, trying to make the mustachioed man come into focus. Geoff smiled warmly down at him, relief washing across the man’s face. If this was a sappy movie, Ray thought, the man would probably start tearing up. Instead Geoff just leaned back and lifted his hand off of Ray’s arm, offering it. Ray grasped it, and Geoff helped him up off the ground. Ray stumbled, but the gent caught him easily. The other people there were silent, and Ray couldn’t see their faces, but there was an ambiance of relief and happiness. Ray didn’t understand much of what was happening, but he didn’t want to. He was hungry and felt weak. He wanted to go to sleep. Maybe eat a burrito first, but then pass out – and _not_ astral project.

They gave up on trying to wake up Ryan and Jack. Ray was given his glasses, finally. Matt and Burnie shouldered Jack, and Joel and Gavin carried Ryan between them. Geoff acted as a crutch for Ray as they exited the throng of trees. A block down the road, three cars sat on the shoulder – Geoff’s, Burnie’s and Matt’s cars. Ryan, Jack, and Joel were to ride with Matt; Geoff was taking Caleb, Gavin, Michael, and Lindsay; and Burnie was to take the last three. Even now, Ray's eyelids drooped. As soon as Geoff helped him into Burnie's car, Ray was asleep. Finally, they were going home, and leaving the whole situation behind them. 

Well, almost the whole situation.

“What _are_ you planning on doing with those documents?” Matt asked Geoff as they made their way towards their own cars.

Geoff pursed his lips, staring at the file still clutched in his hand. He had quickly rifled through them as they had exited the building, getting a gist of what information they contained. The file he had grabbed was one of Doctor Lehrer’s past experiments, and a recent one at that. The doctor was still a threat to them. Even though everyone was back and safe for now, there was still a chance of revenge. Somehow, they had to eliminate this threat.

“I may have an idea.”

* * *

** Epilogue **

“What’s up, everybody, and welcome to AHWU!”

Jack was cheerful as he spoke to the camera, a microphone in one hand and his notebook in the other. Gavin and Michael eyed one another, planning on ways to disrupt the otherwise official weekly filming. Ryan and Ray watched in anticipation. Geoff smiled, quietly thumbing through the newspaper on his desk, as he listened to Jack prattle on. Despite it being less than 48 hours after their little rescue mission, everything seemed back to normal. Or at least, everyone acted like it. So far there had been no dangerous rebukes.

Geoff finally found the article he was looking for. Matt had told him with a sly grin on his face that it was in here. A rather sad and demure picture of Doctor Georgia Lehrer topped the article like a mug shot – in fact, that was what it was. The article detailed how an anonymous person dropped off a file to the police containing evidence that one Georgia Lehrer was conducting illegal and cruel experiments on humans.

She claimed to be a part of the American Mutant Organization, but the article had no idea what this was, suggesting that it was likely something made up to make herself seem more legitimate. Geoff knew better. Now They had a name. Doctor Lehrer did not have a sentence yet, but it seemed to Geoff that the AMO didn’t want her bad enough to prevent her arrest in the first place. He sighed happily. Folding the newspaper neatly shut, he stood in preparation to speak in the AHWU.

It seemed like the doctor was not going to be bothering them for a long while. What they were going to do now was subject for debate, but he had high hopes for the future.

Oh yes, the future was looking pretty fucking good to Geoff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much again for reading. ヽ(；▽；)ノ It's done! It's finally done!
> 
> ..................
> 
> Or is it? (*-`ω´- )人 [Hint: Keep an eye out for a sequel! probably won't be out for a while, but it's been officially planned!]


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